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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26936770">Fall to Darkness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe'>Cait_Sidhe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Agrabah (Kingdom Hearts), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguing, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Dark Magic, Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Darkness, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Game: Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep, Game: Kingdom Hearts I, Heartless Attacks (Kingdom Hearts), Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden, Jealousy, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Keyblades (Kingdom Hearts), M/M, Manipulation, Monstro (Kingdom Hearts), Neverland (Peter Pan), POV Sora (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, Possession, Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Realm of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts), Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora Loves Riku (Kingdom Hearts), True Love's Kiss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:29:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,887</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26936770</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As the Destiny Islands fall to Darkness, a keyblade appears in front of Sora. He tosses it aside to instead grab Riku's hand. The two end up at Hollow Bastion, where the dark fairy Maleficent takes them on as apprentices, claiming she can help them find their missing friend, Kairi...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>78</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Hollow Bastion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I decided to replay KH1 a few days ago, and wondered what would happen if Sora had grabbed Riku's hand. Their hands were so close, and they were trying so hard to reach each other! So, I decided to write about it.</p><p>I've just been throwing it together as I play the game, so don't expect anything extremely detailed or polished.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Riku!” Sora shouted with desperation, reaching towards his best friend’s hand as Darkness enveloped the silverette. He was not going to let Riku be consumed! Well, not alone at least. For some reason Riku seemed to actually want to be overtaken by the strange darkness, which seemed to be actively blocking Sora from grabbing his hand… </p><p>“Sora!” Riku replied with urgency, stretching his arm out further.</p><p>Suddenly, a bright light flashed, and a large key-shaped weapon appeared in Sora’s hand. It seemed to be driving away the darkness—and Riku with it! No way was that going to happen. Sora tossed the strange key away and made one final lunge towards Riku, barely managing to clutch his hand before he vanished. Riku pulled Sora closer with ease, and the two were engulfed by the darkness.</p><p>The two boys simultaneously returned to consciousness in front of a decaying castle, no one else in sight.</p><p>“Ngh… Riku?” Sora muttered, sitting up. His head spun, and he felt fairly disoriented. He then realized their hands were still entwined; Sora blushed and let go before Riku could say anything. “Where are we?”</p><p>Riku sat up too. “Umm… I’m not actually sure. Last thing I remember was going to tie up the raft.”</p><p>Sora looked at Riku, eyes wide. “You don’t remember the dark storm?”</p><p>“The storm…?” Riku scrunched his brow, then his eyes lit up as he remembered. “Right! So, does that mean this is another world?!” He hopped up to his feet, looking around in excitement.</p><p>Sora stood too, the dizziness gone, but wasn’t nearly as excited. “Probably? But, Riku, is it just us here? Where’s Kairi?”</p><p>Riku frowned and his eyes went dark. “Kairi? What, is she all you care about or something?”</p><p>“What? Of course not!” Sora protested, baffled at Riku’s reaction.</p><p>“Well, you definitely care about her more than me,” Riku replied bitterly.</p><p>This only confused Sora further. “Riku, that’s not true at all.”</p><p>“You sure about that? Because it sure doesn’t seem that way.”</p><p>“Dude. You’re not making any sense,” Sora said. Was Riku jealous? Now was not the time for that! “Kairi’s my friend. So are you.”</p><p>“But if you had to choose one, you’d choose her,” Riku said confidently, as though it were fact.</p><p>“What?!” Sora exclaimed, aware he was basically yelling. How could Riku possibly think that? “Are you stupid?! I literally just did the opposite! I ran to find YOU before anyone else when I saw your boats there!” Sora felt guilty admitting it, but despite calling them both his best friends he would always put Riku before Kairi. </p><p>“Then why do you keep asking about her?!” Riku shouted back.</p><p>“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because we left her in the middle of a dark storm that was literally tearing apart the island?! I can care about two people at once, you know! We’re in the middle of an emergency; this is NOT the time for jealousy!”</p><p>“Jealousy?! I’m not—” Riku stopped mid-sentence, anger dissolving as he came to a realization. “Oh,” he said quietly.</p><p>Sora scoffed. “Yeah, ‘oh’. Now, can we please try to figure out what the hell happened to Kairi? Or do you not care if she’s dead?!”</p><p>“Sora, hey, calm down,” Riku said, holding out his hands with palms facing Sora.</p><p>“I am calm,” Sora grumbled in a more normal voice as he crossed his arms. “You’re the one being all angsty.”</p><p>Riku took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. Okay, let’s try to figure out where we are.”</p><p>“And what happened to Kairi?”</p><p>Riku sighed. “Yeah, and what happened to Kairi. I'm sorry for being so… angsty. I do want her safe as much as you.”</p><p>"Really?" Sora raised an eyebrow, skeptical of that.</p><p>"Yeah." Riku sighed and hunched his shoulders, looking at the ground—shame, Sora realized, which was an emotion the silverette rarely expressed openly. "I can't believe I was jealous…"</p><p>Sora shrugged, anger finally dissipating; it looked like Riku really felt bad about that. "It happens,” Sora said casually. “I forgive you."</p><p>Riku shifted slightly. "...Even if that jealousy triggered the darkness that destroyed the islands?"</p><p>Sora blinked. That's what triggered it? No, wait, that wasn't right. "Wasn't it the door opening that caused it?"</p><p>"But I opened the door."</p><p>"Really? Well, then, I forgive you for that too," Sora decided. </p><p>Riku raised an eyebrow. "That easy?"</p><p>Sora gave Riku his signature bright smile. "Yup!"</p><p>"But why?"</p><p>"Because you're Riku," Sora said simply. "You could destroy a hundred islands yet I still would forgive you." That level of loyalty was probably unhealthy, Sora had to admit, but it was true. "Besides, you didn't know it would be destroyed, right?"</p><p>"True," Riku said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Anyway, let's find Kairi."</p><p>"Right," Sora said confidently, then shifted nervously. “Do you think she’s dead…?” he asked quietly, barely wanting to know the answer.</p><p>Riku took a moment to answer. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But, we survived, right? So I’m sure she did too.”</p><p>Sora looked around at the barren decaying landscape. “Do you think she’s around here, or on a different world…?”</p><p>Riku shook his head, looking around too. “I don’t know. I hope she isn’t here, though; this doesn’t look like such a great place.”</p><p>Sora frowned and put his fists on his hips. “Is that really why you hope she isn’t here, or do you just not want her around to take my attention off you?”</p><p>Riku blushed. “What? No! I really do hope she’s somewhere else for her safety! That, before, was… again, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”</p><p>Sora relaxed slightly, lowering his arms to hang at his side. “How long have you been feeling that way?” Sora wondered, knowing it probably wasn’t the proper time for this discussion but he wanted to know and would probably forget to ask later.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Jealous,” Sora said simply. “That level of jealousy doesn’t just come out of nowhere,” he pointed out.</p><p>Riku bit his lip as he thought. “I’m not actually sure,” he concluded. “I think it’s been slowly growing for a while? I… I didn’t realize it was jealousy until you said something. Again, I’m sorry.”</p><p>Sora blinked. He hadn’t heard Riku apologize for anything in a while, and now he’d heard it multiple times in just a few minutes! Sora walked forwards and wrapped his arms around Riku. “It’s okay,” he said. "Again, I forgive you."</p><p>Riku froze briefly, but then returned the hug. “Thanks,” he said quietly, and Sora smiled, although Riku couldn’t see it. It’d been a while since they’d hugged like this, and Sora found himself not wanting to let Riku go.</p><p>“Hey, Sora, might want to let go now,” Riku said after a while, sounding nervous.</p><p>“Why? I like hugging you,” Sora said.</p><p>Riku chuckled. “You’re such a sap… seriously though, there’s an evil witch leaving the creepy castle, so as much as I do like it, now’s not the best time for hugging.”</p><p>Sora let go of Riku and swerved around. He backed up and instinctively stood a little behind Riku, like he’d often done when they were kids. Sora felt a little embarrassed about that; he could fight just as well as Riku! Well, maybe. Sora had a feeling that the times Sora had beaten Riku in their wooden sword matches had only been due to Riku letting him win. Anyway, it hadn’t been a conscious reaction. Riku did the same in the way he put an arm out, shielding Sora in a protective gesture, just as he would do when they were kids, even though for some reason he’d stopped doing that recently. Sora didn’t mind though; in fact, he kinda liked how Riku always protected him, even if Sora could hold his own, maybe.</p><p>“Come now, children,” the witch said gently. “I may be a dark fairy, but I have no intent to harm you despite the stereotypes.”</p><p>Sora wasn’t sure what that word meant, although Riku seemed to. “Stereotypes?” the silverette asked, sounding skeptical. </p><p>“But of course. Just because someone uses the Darkness and looks a little scary doesn’t mean they can’t be kind,” the witch—fairy?—explained.</p><p>“You sure you’re a fairy?” Sora asked, a little confused. “Aren’t fairies supposed to be tiny and winged?”</p><p>The witch/fairy chuckled. “Whereas some are tiny and can fly, there are in fact many types of fae.”</p><p>“What’s your name?” Riku asked.</p><p>“My name? Why, isn’t it more polite to give your name before asking?” The witch pointed out. “Well, I suppose you are still children, after all. My name is Maleficent.”</p><p>“That kinda sounds like an evil name,” Sora pointed out. “Are you sure you’re not evil?”</p><p>“That’s a good point,” Riku concurred.</p><p>Maleficent sighed. “Again with the stereotypes… well, no matter. I’m sure you’ll come around in time.”</p><p>“In time?” Riku asked, narrowing his eyes. “Are you saying you’re going to hold us here?”</p><p>“Of course not. You may leave whenever you want; I won’t stop you. But you still need food and shelter, correct? I can offer it.”</p><p>“She has a point, Riku,” Sora said. “I don’t think we’re going to find food around here, and sleeping in a castle will be better than under a rock or something.”</p><p>Riku frowned. “Okay, we’ll take you up on that,” Riku told the fairy. “But we’re not going to trust you so easily.”</p><p>“But of course; I’d expect nothing less,” Maleficent said. “It is a good instinct to not trust a stranger so easily. Now, I believe I still have yet to learn your names?”</p><p>“Oh, right,” Riku said. “I’m Riku, and this is Sora.” Sora didn’t mind that Riku had introduced him too; truthfully Sora was still rather nervous of the witch—er, fairy. He’d rather let Riku talk to her.</p><p>“Well then, Riku, Sora. Let us go inside; there are plenty of rooms.</p><p>As Sora and Riku began following her, Riku asked, “Do you know if there’s a girl around here? Our friend Kairi was also thrown from the Island.”</p><p>“Kairi, you say?” Maleficent sounded curious upon hearing the name. “Hmm. No, I don’t think I’ve heard of any Kairis. She certainly is not on this world; I would know if she were, as I can feel it with my magic.”</p><p>“Then do you know where she might be?”</p><p>“Alas, I would not. If she is not on this world, she would have been thrown to a different one. However, I can help you look for her, if you wish.”</p><p>“So she’s okay?” Sora asked excitedly. “She’s not dead?”</p><p>“Of course she is not dead,” said the fairy. “When a world falls to Darkness, it merely becomes displaced, with the residents becoming scattered.”</p><p>Riku narrowed his eyes. “How do you know our world fell to Darkness?” he asked sharply.</p><p>“Why, there is merely no other explanation for why you two would appear here and your friend would not,” Maleficent said, unperturbed by Riku’s tone of voice.</p><p>Riku relaxed. “Right, sorry. This is all new to us; we grew up on a small island.”</p><p>“We always wanted to visit other worlds though!” Sora told the fairy excitedly, but then the excitement almost immediately faded. “Although this wasn’t the way we expected that to happen…”</p><p>“I’m sure it wasn’t,” Maleficent said gently as she pushed open the doors to the castle. </p><p>Sora looked around in awe. He’d never been in a castle before! The entranceway was huge, with blue carpeted floors and staircases and even a fountain!</p><p>Then, Sora noticed something that wasn’t exciting: off to the side was a shadowy creature. Sora yelped and hid behind Riku.</p><p>“Sora?” Riku asked in concern. </p><p>“It’s one of those things from the islands!”</p><p>Riku looked towards where Sora was pointing, then turned to Maleficent, who seemed unconcerned. “Are those things your minions? Did you send them there?” Riku demanded, glaring with visible vehemence.</p><p>“Oh, my, of course not!” the dark fairy claimed, then explained further, “Those creatures exist across all worlds. Just like regular animals, the heartless can be either wild or domesticated. I control the ones here, but the ones that have been destroying worlds are feral.”</p><p>Riku and Sora both relaxed, and Sora noticed that the thing—heartless, the fairy had called it—was carrying a basket of laundry.</p><p>“You make them do chores?” Riku asked.</p><p>“But of course. I cannot keep this castle in order alone, even with magic.”</p><p>“You can do magic?!” Sora asked in awe, forgetting his earlier trepidation at the fairy’s Darkness. He’d never seen actual magic before!</p><p>“Well, I am a fairy, after all. If you wish, I could teach you.”</p><p>“Would you?!” Sora said. Yes, he wanted to learn magic!</p><p>“However, there is one caveat: it is mostly dark magic. I know many have aversions to that, even if the fear of it is unfounded, a reflection of society’s views rather than the truth.”</p><p>Sora wasn’t sure what all those words meant, but he got the gist of it. He himself was well aware through personal experience of how people could think bad things of things that weren’t bad; he had created a small scandal a few years prior when, in their first sex ed class, Sora had asked why they were only talking about boy-girl relationships and not boy-boy or girl-girl ones. He’d been teased for it, and some parents had gotten angry that the teacher didn’t outright condemn it (he just said ‘this class doesn’t cover that’). Sora’s mom had then talked to him about how some people find things wrong that aren’t actually wrong. So, maybe dark magic was like that, too.</p><p>“Remember, Sora, we need to find Kairi,” Riku reminded him.</p><p>“Oh, right,” Sora said, slightly disappointed. He wanted to find Kairi, but… magic… </p><p>Riku, noticing Sora’s expression, turned to the fairy. “Will learning that help us find her?”</p><p>“It is possible,” Maleficent said. “It will certainly help protect you from the wild heartless and other dangerous creatures among the other worlds, as well as will allow you to travel to them without the use of a ship.”</p><p>“Then it will help find her!” Sora declared, then turned to his friend with stars in his eyes. “Riku! We’re going to learn magic!”</p><p>Riku chuckled. “Alright then. Let’s learn magic,” he said as he gave Sora a fond look that made Sora’s heart skip a beat for some reason. </p><p>***</p><p>Sora lay awake in the large bed in the spare room Maleficent had given him, thinking about everything that had happened. Barely six hours ago he’d been getting ready to have dinner with his mom. Instead, he’d gotten flung into another world via a dark storm and met a dark fairy who he’d become apprenticed to along with Riku. They would be learning dark magic, which would help them look for Kairi, who was currently MIA. It was all so much! </p><p>Sora figured he should sleep instead of thinking about all this stuff, but he just couldn’t sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes he got images of the dark storm, causing him to open his eyes in a panic… but what could he do? He was tired physically.</p><p>Oh! Duh. Riku! Riku could help him. True, they hadn’t slept in the same bed for years, but it’d always been comforting when they were kids. Maybe it could still be.</p><p>Sora scurried out of bed, tripping slightly over the covers as he did so, then made his way to the room next door. He silently slipped in, finding Riku under the covers, curled up facing away from him. Sora padded over and stood there; was Riku asleep?</p><p>“Do you need something, Sora?” Riku asked without moving. Not asleep then.</p><p>“How’d you know it was me?” Sora wondered.</p><p>“I know how your footsteps sound,” Riku explained, still not turning. “Why are you here? I’m trying to sleep. You should be too.”</p><p>“I can’t,” Sora said simply.</p><p>Riku finally rolled over to look at Sora. “And that’s my problem how?”</p><p>“Um.” Sora blushed. This had seemed like a good idea five minutes ago.</p><p>“Sora?” Riku prodded.</p><p>“I was hoping maybe it would help if I… if I slept with you?” Sora said quietly. “Like when we were kids… If you’re okay with that?”</p><p>Riku was quiet for a bit, and Sora began to think that maybe this was a bad idea after all. Then, Riku lifted an arm to hold up the blanket. “Okay, get in,” he decided, looking like he was trying to hide a smile, although it was difficult to tell in the dark.</p><p>Sora grinned; his stomach did a little flip and he wanted to squeal for some reason (but he didn’t). Sora quickly scrambled under the covers before Riku changed his mind and curled up against Riku’s chest. Riku seemed hesitant for a moment before dropping the blanket over them and draping his arm over Sora’s waist.</p><p>“Better?” Riku asked quietly once they both were settled.</p><p>“Much,” Sora murmured as he drifted to sleep, comfortable in Riku’s arms.</p><p>***</p><p>Sora woke with a yawn and stretched out, forgetting who was next to him and subsequently whacking Riku in the face with his arm.</p><p>Riku grunted. “What the fuck, Sora.”</p><p>“Sorry,” Sora said sheepishly, with a blush.</p><p>Riku sighed. “It’s fine. I was awake anyway. I want to talk to you about something.”</p><p>Sora frowned. “Is it about sleeping together? I like it but if you’re not comfortable—”</p><p>“No, it’s not that,” Riku cut Sora off, blushing slightly. “It’s about our situation. Are you sure we can trust Maleficent? Something feels off.”</p><p>“Well, that’s just because we’ve always been told that Darkness is bad, right?” Sora reasoned. “What was that word she used for it? Pre-diced?”</p><p>“Prejudiced,” Riku corrected. “I guess that’s true. Still, be careful. She could be lying.”</p><p>Sora shrugged and put his hands behind his head, nearly elbowing RIku in the face in the process. “I mean, we don’t really have much of a choice but to be here,” he pointed out. “She seems nice enough. I think we can trust her.”</p><p>“Yeah, but just because someone’s nice doesn’t make them trustworthy.”</p><p>“It doesn’t make them not trustworthy either,” Sora retorted. “Come on, she’s going to teach us magic!”</p><p>“Dark magic.”</p><p>“Again, that’s pre-juiced talking.”</p><p>“Prejudice,” Riku again corrected.</p><p>Sora rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go get something to eat; I’m hungry.”</p><p>Riku agreed with that plan, and once two boys got out of bed Sora grabbed Riku’s hand to drag him out of the room. Sora decided he liked holding Riku’s hand; also, there might have been some fear of losing Riku in the inner recesses of his mind, after the near-loss the previous day and losing Kairi. Sora was going to keep Riku by his side for the foreseeable future, he decided.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Magic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maleficent teaches Sora and Riku magic, as well as tells them about the keyblade.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter is incredibly short, but that's how the scenes split between chapters best.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Argh! I just can’t get this!” Sora complained as another dark ball burst in his hands. “How are you doing that?” Sora asked Riku as he watched the silverette not only make a ball of pure dark energy but also fling it at a target, although he missed… but still. A week of learning, yet Riku was already annoyingly far ahead of Sora.</p><p>Riku shrugged. “I dunno. I just did it.”</p><p>“Oh, very helpful, Riku!” Sora grumbled. “We can’t all be perfect like you.”</p><p>Riku frowned. “I’m not perfect. Where’d you get that idea?”</p><p>“Well, you’re better than me in everything,” Sora pointed out. Wasn’t that obvious? It was a simple fact that Riku was better than Sora at everything. “You even look a lot cooler.”</p><p>Riku blushed, to Sora’s confusion. Why was that simple fact embarrassing? “I’m not… I don’t…” the silverette trailed off.</p><p>“Yeah, you are,” Sora argued. “You’re, like, super hot. I bet you could date anyone you want!”</p><p>Riku’s face reddened further. “I don’t know about that,” he said quietly, then took a deep breath to calm the blush. Riku sighed. “Anyway, enough about my looks. Here, I’ll help you. Show me what you’re doing.”</p><p>Riku stepped over to Sora, and Sora demonstrated his technique, or lack thereof. Riku attempted to help Sora through it, and after a while, Sora did manage to produce a ball of darkness that didn’t burst immediately, although it did when he tried to throw it.</p><p>Maleficent clapped as she entered the room; she’d been watching the two, unbeknownst to them. “Very nice! You two have made astounding progress in only a week! Why, pretty soon, you’ll be ready to learn how to open dark corridors to travel between worlds!”</p><p>“Really?” Sora asked in awe.</p><p>“Well, Riku will be,” the fairy clarified, and Sora wilted slightly. “But by no means should you feel down, Sora, for you have made more progress than expected, too. Perhaps you are not yet on Riku’s level, but I am certain you will catch up.”</p><p>“It’s okay, Sora,” Riku said, grinning. “We can’t all be perfect.”</p><p>“Hey!” Sora protested.</p><p>“You’re the one who called me that,” Riku pointed out playfully, apparently over his embarrassment over such.</p><p>Maleficent chuckled. “Alright, boys, I think that’s enough practicing for now. Come, let us eat dinner.”</p><p>“Aww, but I want to throw it!” Sora said. “I know I can do it!”</p><p>“Sora,” Maleficent said firmly. “Remember, using too much dark magic before you are ready can cause it to consume you. Be patient.”</p><p>“But it’s been a week since we got here; we need to look for Kairi…”</p><p>“I am aware. As I previously explained, I have been keeping in contact with acquaintances of mine in other worlds; they will let us know if they’ve seen her. Once you are more used to darkness, I can take you through a portal, or if you progress far enough to make your own you may travel to other places yourselves.”</p><p>“But when will that be?” Sora pressed. He knew Riku could go through them with Maleficent already, but he didn’t want to go anywhere without Sora so had opted not to look yet.</p><p>“Oh, no more than another week,” Maleficent said. “Now, come; the heartless have prepared quite the feast for dinner tonight, as we have a few guests. Tell me, what are your thoughts on pirates?”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>“So, what are we learning today?” Sora asked Maleficent excitedly. “Portals?” Sora and Riku were with Maleficent in the training room, ready for another magic lesson.</p><p>Maleficent sighed. “I told you only yesterday that it will still be about a week until you are ready, Sora.”</p><p>Sora shuffled slightly. “I know…”</p><p>Riku chuckled. “He tends to be impatient,” he explained. Sora opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it. It was true.</p><p>“I have noticed,” Maleficent said tonelessly. “Remember, Sora, Darkness is not something to take lightly. If one wishes to control it, one must exercise patience; become too eager, attempt to control too much too fast, and it will consume one’s heart.”</p><p>“So, then, what are we learning?” Sora asked again.</p><p>“Well, before we do magic, I have learned from one of my acquaintances that you two are capable of summoning a legendary weapon called the Keyblade. It appears to those strong of heart… however, just because you are capable, doesn’t mean that you are the ones who will summon it.”</p><p>“Summon it? What do you mean?” Riku asked.</p><p>“And why would we want to?” Sora wondered.</p><p>“Why, the keyblade is the only thing that can permanently defeat a heartless and send a captured heart back to where it belongs, among other things. It is an immensely useful tool. I cannot summon it myself, but I’ve been told that if you meditate enough on the power of your heart, it may appear to you. That, or it may appear in time of great need; however, I do not wish to place you in severe danger merely for the sake of acquiring a weapon. I would like you both to try meditating on that on your own time. For now, I will show you how to use your own darkness to forge a blade. The method is similar, so perhaps it’ll help you with manifesting the keyblade later on….”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Kairi</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kairi is found. The reunion doesn't go how the boys expect.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Riku! Look, I see Kairi!” Sora, perched on a rooftop with the silverette, called excitedly. “At least I think it’s her." She was a bit far away to be completely certain. For the past few weeks, Sora and Riku had been searching various worlds looking for Kairi with the aid of Maleficent, a new world every few days (the two weren’t yet ready for daily dark portal trips), when they heard of a place called Traverse Town, where people who were displaced often end up. So, they immediately begged Maleficent to go there, and now had been wandering around thinking they might find the girl—which they had. Finally!</p><p>Riku squinted to get a better look. “Yeah, looks like it… whoa! She’s being attacked by heartless!”</p><p>“What!” Sora squeaked. “Riku, we have to save her!”</p><p>“I know,” Riku said resolutely before running ahead. Sora quickly followed.</p><p>By the time the two reached Kairi, the little heartless had been replaced by a giant heartless made completely out of armor. Sora watched in awe as Riku jumped in front of the redhead to block a blow from the thing with his dark blade, Soul Eater.</p><p>“Riku?!” Kairi proclaimed in shock. “And Sora?!” she added as Sora joined them.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Kairi, we’ll save you!” Sora assured her, summoning his own dark blade, Nightmare Heart. Maleficent had taught them how to manifest the swords from the darkness in their hearts, but they hadn’t chosen the names. Magic told them the weapons' names, which were rather morbid for Sora's taste, but they were good weapons that could defeat heartless so he could forgive the creepy names, as well as the looks—Riku’s looked like a bat wing, and Sora’s was black with a chain running through the hollow center. </p><p>“What? No, I can fight too!” Kairi told them, holding out a golden key-shaped blade.</p><p>Riku and Sora stared at it in shock. Though they hadn’t ever seen it in-person, it could only be the legendary keyblade that Maleficent told them about—the only thing that could permanently defeat heartless to free the hearts composing them. She’d claimed that both Riku and Sora had the capability to wield it, but here was Kairi with it instead. No wonder neither had been able to manifest it.</p><p>“What are you two doing?!” Kairi yelled, jumping past them to shield the boys from another blow from the giant armor heartless.</p><p>“Right, sorry!” Sora said, joining in the fray along with Riku. He noticed an anthropomorphic duck and a dog were also fighting; strange.</p><p>“This thing was tough!” Sora noted as he leapt around attacking it.</p><p>“What, too much for you?” Riku taunted. “Thought you were better than that, Sora.”</p><p>“Hey, I don’t see you doing much damage, either!” Sora pointed out.</p><p>“Will you two stop bickering and focus?” Kairi told the boys as she dealt the thing a severe blow.</p><p>Just when they’d thought the thing was defeated, the heartless’s armor flew apart and began attacking in separate pieces.</p><p>“Fuck,” Sora swore.</p><p>Kairi looked at him in disbelief. “Since when do you—”</p><p>“No time for that!” Riku said, jumping in front of the girl to block a blow from the thing.</p><p>After a while of the three taking turns exchanging blows with the heartless—Riku and Sora using many darkness-infused attacks and Kairi using many light-infused ones—in sync as though they’d been fighting together forever, and the duck and dog attacking too with solid blows from a shield and magic respectively, the thing finally fell.</p><p>“You two were amazing!” Kairi said, beaming at the boys.</p><p>“You too!” Sora said cheerfully. “So where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”</p><p>“Me too!” Kairi said. “Donald and Goofy have been helping me.”</p><p>“The duck and dog?” Riku asked, sounding skeptical.</p><p>“Yup! I’m sure we all can be friends! I think you’d like them, Sora; they’re always so cheerful!”</p><p>Riku chuckled. “Yeah? You’re that good friends already?” Sora sensed there might be a note of jealousy there… but he had to admit that he was a little jealous, too. They hadn’t been separated that long, yet Kairi had already found new people to replace them.</p><p>Kairi shrugged. “Well, you two weren’t around, and they helped me. So, yeah!”</p><p>Said duck and dog reached the group. The dog seemed pretty cheerful, but the duck looked at the two boys suspiciously.</p><p>“This is Donald and Goofy,” Kairi introduced.</p><p>“Nice to meet you!” the dog—Goofy—said amicably. “Kairi’s been looking all over for you.”</p><p>“Really?” Riku asked, sounding skeptical.</p><p>Kairi blushed. “Yeah. We visited a lot of worlds, too! We have a rocket ship! Can you believe it? Oh, but you must have one too,” Kairi said. “Since you weren’t here when I first landed here.”</p><p>“No,” Sora said. “We—”</p><p>“Yes, we have a ship,” Riku interrupted, and Sora looked at Riku in confusion. Riku gave him a look that said ‘just go with it’.</p><p>“Yeah!” Sora said. “Isn’t that cool? Who would have thought we’d be travelling in rocket ships!”</p><p>“It’s called a GummiShip,” Donald corrected, sounding annoyed. Maybe he was just one of those people who often had a bad attitude if he didn’t know someone. Kinda like Riku, actually.</p><p>“You know, Kairi’s the Keyblade Master,” Goofy said cheerfully.</p><p>“Yeah, we can see that!” Sora said, excited for her but also a little jealous too, once again. Huh. Maybe Riku's jealousy issues were contagious (although the back of Sora’s mind told him that no, Sora had always been a little jealous of people too—especially with Riku being better than him at everything. It just never had been directed at Kairi before).</p><p>“It’s pretty cool,” Riku said, holding it. He passed the keyblade to Sora, who examined it too. It had a shiny gold handle and a silver shaft, ending in a spiky end similar to that of an old-fashioned key, true to its name… wait a second. He’d seen that before! It had appeared when they’d been taken from the Islands… and Sora had tossed it aside! Well, Riku was more important than a weapon, legendary or not.</p><p>“What? How did you get that?!” Kairi demanded, looking surprised. “When anyone else takes it, it returns to me,” she explained when the two seemed confused. Sora handed it back to her. He felt that it’d be a bad idea to say that either he, Riku, or maybe even both of them together had made it appear in the first place, meaning that Kairi had been its third choice after Sora rejected it. He didn’t want to decrease her morale like that.</p><p>“So, Kairi, you gonna come with us now?” Riku asked hopefully.</p><p>Kairi frowned. “I have to do this thing with locking world keyholes to stop the heartless for good. It’s the keybearer’s duty or something… Oh, you can come with us, though!” That sounded exciting! Sora wasn’t sure about the keyhole-locking thing though. Maybe he could explain to Kairi that the heartless weren’t bad enough to lock away like that. Well, some were, but the cute little ones could be controlled. Maleficent even said she'd teach them how to someday. </p><p>“You can’t just decide that!” Donald argued. Sora blinked. What? Would they not be able to go?</p><p>“Excuse me?” Kairi said, taking offense. “They’re my friends! They can help us!” Oh, good. Kairi would fight for it; Sora was afraid maybe she would side with her new friends instead.</p><p>“Yeah, Donald,” Goofy chimed in. “Friends have to stick together!”</p><p>“No!” the duck yelled. “They were using Darkness; you saw them! I’m not letting them on our ship!”</p><p>“But…” Kairi bit her lip in thought. Was she actually considering that? Sora couldn’t believe it! She’d actually choose her new friends over Sora and Riku?</p><p>“Oh no!” Goofy suddenly yelled. “The heartless is getting back up!”</p><p>Kairi and Donald turned towards it. Sora moved to fight too, but instead Riku grabbed Sora’s wrist and dragged him away, behind a building.</p><p>“Hey, what was that for?!” Sora complained.</p><p>“They’ve got it handled,” Riku said. “You heard the duck; they don’t want us there. I think they’ve convinced Kairi that Darkness is bad. She would have gone with them… without us.” </p><p>“But…” Sora wasn’t sure what to say to that. That is what appeared to be the situation. Would Kairi truly abandon them? “Maybe… maybe she’ll look for us after they fight the thing,” Sora said hopefully.</p><p>“Sora…Okay, fine,” Riku conceded. “We’ll watch her for a bit, see what she does. That sound good?”</p><p>Sora nodded, feeling a little uncomfortable with spying on his friend but seeing little other way to confirm whom Kairi would choose. Then, he remembered something. “Hey, what was with the ship thing? We don’t have a ship.”</p><p>Riku shrugged. “People don’t react well to people using Darkness; you know that. The duck was looking at us suspiciously the whole fight. So, I figured we shouldn’t reveal too much—and I was right, wasn’t I? You saw how they acted about us using Dark attacks. What do you think they’d think if they learned we used dark portals, too?”</p><p>Sora sighed. “Yeah, I see your point… We need to somehow let Kairi know that the Darkness isn’t that bad.”</p><p>“Yeah… hey, looks like they finished fighting. Let’s follow them.”</p><p>Sora peered out from behind the building, too, watching Kairi use the keyblade to seal the world’s keyhole. Sora felt bad about that; the heartless would be trapped again. Well, Kairi didn’t know any better. After, Kairi looked around the square. She called Sora and Riku’s names a bit, and Sora felt some hope at that. She was going to choose them! But then… She paused. The duck and dog said some things to Kairi, and she walked off with them. Sora grabbed Riku’s hand and pulled him to follow them, hoping maybe Kairi just had to use the bathroom or something and would then look again.</p><p>But she didn’t. Kairi and the other two entered a house instead, where they started talking happily with some other people. Laughing. Seemingly unworried about where Sora and Riku were. Kairi truly had chosen her new friends over Sora and Riku.</p><p>Sora felt tears well up in his eyes; unlike Riku, who tended to close down and brood when hurt, Sora got emotional. Usually he tried to hide it, but the exception to that was Riku, whom Sora always sought comfort from. Sora turned and flung his arms around Riku’s waist, burying his face in Riku’s shoulder to hide his tears. Somehow Riku was a few inches taller than him again; Sora had thought he’d caught up the previous year, but apparently not anymore.</p><p>Riku froze for a second, then wrapped his arms around Sora, rubbing his back in a comforting gesture.</p><p>A gentle murmur sounded near them; Sora, face still buried in Riku’s chest, recognized it as Maleficent’s voice. “A terribly tragic thing, to be rejected by a friend,” the fairy said with sympathy. “She is a terrible person, to abandon you two, to simply replace you with new friends as soon as you vanished…”</p><p>“She’s just confused,” Sora argued quietly. “They’re telling her the Darkness is bad, and that we’re bad because we use it. We just need to prove to her it isn’t...”</p><p>“Sora…” Riku trailed off, seemingly unsure about what to say.</p><p>“Unfortunately, prejudice against Darkness runs deep,” Maleficent said sadly. “If she’s so opposed to the Darkness already, so convinced that it’s a horrible thing, it may be difficult to convince her otherwise.”</p><p>“We at least have to try,” Sora muttered stubbornly. Kairi was their friend; she would come around, right? But she’d abandoned them… maybe she didn’t think they were friends anymore.</p><p>“Yeah,” Riku agreed. “Maybe she’ll come around if she knows the truth.” He didn’t sound very sure though.</p><p>“Well, I suppose it’s worth a try,” Maleficent agreed. “However, I implore you to not get your hopes up.”</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Agrabah</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maleficent explains her plan to Sora and Riku. They go to retrieve Jasmine.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riku crossed his arms and stared skeptically at Maleficent after she explained what she had been doing. “Are you sure you’re not evil? Because capturing Princesses sounds like a classic evil villain plot.”</p><p>“Well, as I said, they refuse to listen otherwise, due to their bias against the Darkness,” Maleficent told the boys patiently and with a note of sadness. “They truly left me no other choice.”</p><p>“Makes sense to me!” Sora decided. Maleficent had explained to them that Kairi’s plan to lock the keyholes to shut out the heartless was flawed. It would reduce the number enough to stop the worlds from falling, but would not entirely eliminate them, meaning they could still harm people. Plus, in Sora’s opinion, locking the heartless away was kinda mean. Maleficent, however, knew of a way to stop the heartless from harming people entirely without shutting any of them out. It required the Princesses of Light to use their powers together to open a master keyhole that was conveniently in this very palace. After it was opened, it would enhance Maleficent’s ability to control the heartless to extend to them all, upon which she would order them to not attack people and not to destroy the worlds. In fact, she planned to order the heartless to help people instead! It was a win-win for everybody, including the heartless themselves, as they could live in the outside world without people trying to kill them.</p><p>The problem, however, was that the Princesses refused to even listen to Maleficent because she was Dark. So Maleficent had reluctantly decided to capture them instead, putting them in stasis pods. Once her plan was in place, she would then release them, and the Princesses would hopefully see it had been for the best and no longer be so hateful. It was a bit messed-up, sure, but they’d really left her with no other option: there was simply no time to continue attempting to negotiate, as the worlds kept falling faster and faster.</p><p>There was also another issue: the Princesses were difficult to find. Maleficent needed seven, but she had only found four so far, after multiple years of searching. Part of the reason was that only someone who could sense the light and dark in someone could know for certain if someone was a Princess of Light, as their heart had to be 100% Light to qualify, without even a slimmer of darkness. Maleficent could tell, but none of her acquaintances who were helping her could. It was a rare ability, she claimed. They had on occasion thought they’d found one, but they all turned out to be busts. However, Maleficent thought Sora might have the ability to tell, too! She was going to teach Sora how to do that. Hopefully then they could find the last three Princesses very soon!</p><p>“Well, if you’re on board with it, Sora, I guess I am too,” Riku decided.</p><p>“Wonderful!” Maleficent chimed. “Now, children, let us go to the chamber with the Princesses. We shall see if Sora has the ability to tell who is a Princess of Light and who isn’t.”</p><p>Maleficent led them through a maze of corridors into a room that looked like a cross between a laboratory and dungeon. In it were, as she’d said, stasis chambers with Princesses in some of them, as well as a gigantic keyhole-shaped machine.</p><p>“Again, you sure you’re not evil?” Riku asked with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“You know, he has a point,” Sora said. “This really is a classic evil villain aesthetic. Real final-video-game-boss type of vibe.”</p><p>Maleficent sighed. “Well, all I can give is my word that I most certainly am not evil, but if you do not believe me and do not wish to help, I suppose I understand,” said Maleficent.</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry, we believe you!” Sora said. They’d been living with Maleficent for nearly a month; she’d more than proven herself trustworthy in Sora’s opinion.</p><p>Riku still looked skeptical and didn’t reply, so Sora elbowed him in the side. “Uh, yeah, sure,” the silverette said. “We’ll help.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Sora and Riku stood atop a high outcropping on the wall of the stone chamber, watching the scene unfold below them. Kairi, Donald, and Goofy were fighting Jafar, one of Maleficent’s acquaintances, who had been turned into a genie. Or, more accurately, trying to catch the parrot holding the now-genie’s lamp.</p><p>“Kairi’s here; should we try talking to her again?” Sora wondered, whispering to Riku. He didn’t think they needed to rescue her this time, and even if they tried to she probably wouldn’t like that. She could handle herself.</p><p>Riku shook his head. “As much as I want to, I don’t think we can right now,” Riku whispered back. “I have a feeling the chamber could collapse after this, and we still have to acquire the Princess of Light.”</p><p>“Potential Princess,” Sora reminded Riku.</p><p>“You sure you need to be touching her to tell?” Riku double-checked.</p><p>Sora sighed. “Unfortunately. Maleficent wouldn’t need to, but I’m not experienced enough yet to do it remotely… Think we could just take her and check later? Jafar seems pretty convinced she’s one, and Maleficent says it’s extremely likely, too.”</p><p>“We could try, but then if she isn’t, she’ll know too much—Maleficent might need to put her in the dungeon until everything’s over so she doesn’t tell.”</p><p>“That’s true,” Sora acknowledged. Maleficent might not be as bad as the side of Light thought, but she wasn’t a fool. She definitely would put someone in a dungeon if necessary.</p><p>A rumble shook the cavern as Jafar was finally drawn into the lamp.</p><p>“Let’s go, while they’re distracted,” Riku said, forming a portal that connected from their perch to next to the unconscious girl. Sora was a little jealous of that; he had yet to form one himself, at least not a stable one.</p><p>The two stepped though and appeared next to Princess Jasmine. Sora immediately knelt down and put a hand on her back, concentrating on her balance of Light and Dark… of which there was none. It kinda hurt a little, sensing so much Light with no Darkness; he removed his hand and nodded to Riku, whispering “Yeah, she’s one.”</p><p>The Princess began to stir. “What’s… going on…?” She asked drowsily, looking towards the two boys. “Who—”</p><p>Riku used a sleep spell, knocking the girl unconscious once again. He picked her up—Riku’s strength was another thing Sora was a bit jealous about—and then formed another portal.The two stepped through with the Princess to arrive back at the castle, where Maleficent’s acquaintances were having a meeting; a scrying glass revealed that they’d been watching the scene, no doubt monitoring Jafar, whom Maleficent suspected had been slipping and might be consumed by Darkness. The suspicions had proven true.</p><p>“Very good,” Maleficent praised, turning to the boys. “Now, as you brought her here, I assume she is truly a Princess of Light?” At Sora’s nod, she said, “Excellent. We shall bring her to the chamber.”</p><p>“All is NOT excellent,” said a tall blue-grey man with flaming blue hair—Hades. “We are down a man!”</p><p>Maleficent pursed her lips. “Jafar was well aware of the consequences of giving into his hate and using so much darkness, as are you all. Even without the darkness he would have been consumed by his amount of hate and lost the battle.”</p><p>The Pirate—Captain Hook—looked at the boys with slight distaste. “Perhaps not, if the boys helped instead of watched.”</p><p>Riku narrowed his eyes. “We were only instructed to capture the Princess, not to help him fight.”</p><p>“Precisely,” Maleficent said curtly, gaze directed at Hook. “I do not wish for my apprentices to be put in unnecessary danger. As I said, Jafar would have been consumed regardless.” She turned to Sora and Riku. “Now, children, please bring the Princess to a stasis chamber before she wakes. Then you may have the rest of the day free; you have used enough darkness for today.”</p><p>“Yes, Ma’am,” the two boys said together, then headed to where the Princesses of Light were kept, leaving Maleficent to continue her meeting with the others.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Monstro</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora and Riku encounter Kairi again while trying to capture a puppet.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sora stepped out of a dark portal—he’d finally managed to make one on his own!—with Riku into one of the strangest places he’d ever been in. When Maleficent said she was sending them to a whale, Sora had not expected her to mean literally inside of one! The walls were so squishy, and the colors of everything were super strange—mixtures of blues, purples, and pinks that Sora had not expected to see in a whale. There was a slight rocking feeling, as though they were on a boat; thankfully, having lived on an island, the two were used to being on boats, so wouldn’t be getting seasick.</p><p>Allegedly there was a puppet here who had magically developed a heart. An acquaintance of Maleficent had requested it be investigated, although Sora wasn’t quite sure why. They hadn’t actually met the guy, but apparently he researched hearts or something. Well, whatever. Capturing the puppet was their goal, and that’s all Sora needed to know. </p><p>Plus, for some reason there were heartless here, so the two could get some nice practice fighting with their dark magic. Magical targets were all well and good, but didn’t compare to true field experience. Sora had finally gotten the knack of the dark energy balls, and now could throw multiple ones around, even changing their direction! Riku had gotten that down a while ago, and had since progressed to this dark-teleport-slash-combo thing, but still. Progress. Now Sora didn’t feel like he needed as much protection, especially as he’d finally gotten a dark barrier move down too. And cure magic! Riku actually had not been able to get that, to his frustration, so Sora had an advantage there. He could be useful! Yes, Sora was feeling pretty good about his abilities now.</p><p>“This is so weird,” Riku commented, picking his foot up to reveal some sort of slime sticking off of it for a moment before it detached and merged back into the whale’s… whatever organ they were in. When Riku put his foot back down it made a squishing sound.</p><p>Sora scrunched up his nose. “Eww. Let’s get the puppet and get out of here ASAP,” Sora decided.</p><p>“Agreed.”</p><p>The two began walking in a random direction, unsure where they could find the puppet—Pistachio, Sora recalled the name. Or was it Pinchokeko? Well, whatever; the name didn’t matter much. They had to fight some heartless along the way, but they were weak ones so it was more fun than anything.</p><p>“Stop,” Riku suddenly said in a whisper, holding an arm out in front of Sora. “I think I hear someone.”</p><p>“Really? Is it the puppet?” Sora wondered.</p><p>“No, it sounds female… wait…” Riku gasped. “I think it’s Kairi!”</p><p>“Kairi?!” Sora said, a little too loud.</p><p>Riku covered Sora’s mouth with his hand and said, “Shhh! We should see what they’re doing first. Maybe they’re with the puppet.”</p><p>“Right,” Sora whispered as he nodded once. And then maybe they could convince her to side with them.</p><p>The two crept closer until they could observe the trio—Kairi, the duck, and the dog. The boys were on the top of a cliff (or whatever it was in regards to the whale’s anatomy; point was, Kairi was below them); they laid on their stomachs so they could peer over the cliff without being easily seen. The three were talking with a boy made of wood—the puppet they were seeking. A voice Sora didn’t know was speaking; he squinted and used the darkness to briefly boost his eyesight, revealing that on Kairi’s shoulder was perched what appeared to be a cricket.</p><p>“Careful,” Riku warned. “You know what Maleficent said about using the darkness too much. You already made a portal recently, and were using a lot of dark attacks while fighting.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sora said dismissively. “It was just a tiny enhancement. Did you know they have a talking cricket with them?”</p><p>“Well, now I do,” Riku said with a chuckle. “Okay, that was fine, just… you know I worry.”</p><p>“Yeah, a bit too much,” Sora pointed out.</p><p>Riku sighed. “Sora…”</p><p>“It’s okay,” Sora said with a small chuckle. “I actually kinda like it when you worry about me,” he admitted.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku said with a blush. “You can’t just say stuff like that!”</p><p>“Why not?” Sora teased, sticking his tongue out.</p><p>“Hey, did you hear something?” Goofy said.</p><p>“It kinda feels like we’re being watched…” Kairi said nervously.</p><p>The boys quieted, glancing at each other with wide eyes. As the group began looking around, the puppet ran off again, and Sora and Riku backed up so that they weren’t visible.</p><p>“What do we do?” Sora whispered. “Should we talk to them? Or chase the puppet?”</p><p>“We could split up,” Riku suggested.</p><p>Sora shook his head and grabbed Riku’s arm, even though the silverette hadn’t moved. “No. I don’t want to be separated,” Sora said, aware he was being a bit clingy. He’d already been separated from Kairi, and look what happened. Logically he knew Riku wouldn’t abandon him, they’d be in the same world, and they both knew how to get back to their home if lost, but still.</p><p>Riku sighed. “Fine. Let’s talk to them first.”</p><p>“But what do we say?” Sora wondered. They couldn’t just come right out and say Darkness was good and they should stop sealing keyholes. Kairi would get mad.</p><p>“We’ll figure it out.”</p><p>“I know you’re there!” Kairi yelled. “Whoever you are, come out and face us!”</p><p>“Well, that’s our cue,” Riku said, standing up, helping Sora up by the hand. </p><p>The two walked to the ledge.</p><p>“Sora?! Riku?!” Kairi proclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”</p><p>“We could ask you the same question,” Riku countered.</p><p>Kairi frowned. “Stop deflecting. I asked first.”</p><p>“Why should we tell you?” Sora asked, knowing well that she would not approve of why they were here but not wanting to outright lie.</p><p>“Suspicious!” Donald squawked.</p><p>Kairi frowned. “Donald’s right… hey, could you two maybe get down here? It’d be easier to talk.”</p><p>Sora looked down. He knew he could jump that far in theory, but it was still nerve-wracking.</p><p>“I’ll help,” Riku said quietly, grabbing Sora’s hand and pulling him off the cliff with him, Sora tripping slightly at the unexpectedness of it. The two dropped, slowing their descent at the end with the use of darkness.</p><p>Kairi’s frown became more pronounced. “You know, you really shouldn’t be using Darkness,” she said judgmentally. At least, that’s how Sora interpreted it.</p><p>Riku narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms (meaning he had to let go of Sora’s hand, which Sora found himself a little disappointed over), taking it the same way. “Yeah? And why not?”</p><p>“Because it’s bad!” the duck squawked angrily.</p><p>“Why?” Sora challenged.</p><p>“It corrupts people!”</p><p>“Not if you retain control over it,” Riku explained, looking icily at the dcuk.</p><p>“Yeah,” Sora agreed. “We won’t become corrupted!”</p><p>“That’s what everyone says at first!” the duck continued to argue.</p><p>“You can turn into a heartless if you succumb to the Darkness,” Kairi said quietly. “I don’t want you becoming heartless…”</p><p>Sora rolled his eyes. “We won’t become heartless, Kairi.”</p><p>“Speaking of heartless,” Riku began, “They—”</p><p>Sora put a hand over Riku’s mouth and hissed in his ear, “Not the time for that,” in a rare reversal of their usual dynamic.</p><p>Riku childishly licked Sora’s hand.</p><p>Sora scrunched his nose as he removed his hand and wiped it on his jacket. “Ri-ku! Seriously?” Then he turned back to Kairi. “Anyway. You should totally join us! The three of us can be together and travel the worlds and stuff, like we planned.”</p><p>“Oh, you mean how we planned back on the Islands, which fell to that very same Darkness you’re using?!” Kairi responded thornily.</p><p>“Kairi, the Darkness isn’t bad like they’re telling you, just misunderstood!”</p><p>“Yeah,” Riku backed up Sora’s statement. “As long as you don’t let it control you, it’s fine.”</p><p>“No! It’s not! Who even told you that?!”</p><p>“Oh! That would be our teacher,” Sora told Kairi happily. “Maybe you can meet her, and that’ll change your mind! She’s a fairy.”</p><p>“A fairy,” Kairi said skeptically.</p><p>“Gawrsh, you wouldn’t mean the Dark Fairy Maleficent, would ya?” Goofy said, sounding worried.</p><p>“That’s it! Do you know her?” Riku asked.</p><p>“Wak! She’s evil!” Donald proclaimed.</p><p>“Maleficent’s the one who’s been making the worlds fall!” Kairi declared.</p><p>“What? No, she’s been trying to stop that from happening!” Sora clarified. No wonder Kairi was so opposed to them learning Dark magic and training with Maleficent! It had all been a misunderstanding.</p><p>“Then she’s lying to you!” Kairi argued. “She made the Islands fall!”</p><p>Sora and Riku looked at each other briefly, then Riku, radiating guilt, sheepishly admitted, “Actually, I did that.”</p><p>“What?!”</p><p>“But it was an accident!” Sora defended. “Riku didn’t know opening that door would do that!”</p><p>Kairi blinked, appearing stunned, then she shook her head. “That should be all the more reason to reject the Darkness, not embrace it!”</p><p>“And it doesn’t change the face that Maleficent caused the other worlds to fall!” Donald warbled angrily.</p><p>“You’re on the wrong side,” Kairi insisted.</p><p>“No, you’re on the wrong side!” Sora retorted. </p><p>“Sora, let’s just go,” Riku said. “Obviously she’s not going to budge.”</p><p>Sora sighed. Riku was right. “Yeah, fine,” Sora said, backing up as he used a boost of darkness to return to the top of the cliff. Riku followed Sora’s example.</p><p>The two turned around and ran off without another word to Kairi. Maybe if they saw her again they could convince her; maybe if they became more powerful... showed her the Darkness was nothing to fear… yeah, maybe if they did that Kairi would come around… </p><p>“We need to find a way to get down one level,” Riku said as they stopped at a crossroads (or, cross-intestine or something?). “I seriously doubt the puppet would have run off far, and they’ll be looking for him too.”</p><p>Sora nodded. “Yeah, we should try to get to it before they do.”</p><p>“How does a puppet gain a heart, anyway?” Riku wondered as they began trying to figure out which direction was best.</p><p>Sora shrugged. “Beats me. That’s what the guy wants to find out, right? Hey, I think this path looks promising,” Sora commented. It led downwards slightly and possibly curved up ahead in the right direction.</p><p>Sora and Riku took off at a run again. The path did indeed lead to where they wanted to go; to their luck, the boys found the puppet as they turned a corner, no one else in sight. Perfect.</p><p>“Who are you?” the puppet asked upon noticing them.</p><p>“That doesn’t matter,” Sora said. Maleficent had told them that they shouldn’t reveal their names unless necessary; the less people knew about them the better, as it reduced the chances of people finding them if the person (or puppet in this case) escaped. Although the puppet was with Kairi, and she knew them, so maybe it actually didn’t matter in this case.</p><p>“You’re coming with us,” Riku told the puppet.</p><p>“But Jiminy says I shouldn’t go places with strangers,” the puppet said. “Not after what happened last time.”</p><p>Sora rolled his eyes. “Look, if you don’t go willingly, we’re taking you by force.”</p><p>“By force?” The puppet looked confused. “Gosh, does that mean you're going to kidnap me?”</p><p>“Yes,” Sora confirmed. No reason to deny it.</p><p>“Golly, I don’t like that idea,” the puppet said worriedly. “Maybe in that case I should go with you… What to do…”</p><p>“Sora, there’s no time to debate with him; they’ll be here soon,” Riku pointed out. “Let’s just knock him out and go.”</p><p>Sora frowned. “He’s made of wood. I don’t think conking him on the head will work.”</p><p>Riku rolled his eyes. “Seriously?” Riku held out his arm, palm facing the puppet. “Sleep,” the silverette said with a burst of magic, and the puppet fell to the ground.</p><p>“Oh, that works,” Sora said, slightly embarrassed that he’d forgotten about that spell.</p><p>“Sora! Riku! What are you doing?!” Kairi’s voice echoed loudly through the chamber as she rushed towards them, stopping a bit away. The two boys turned, Riku first picking up the unconscious puppet under his arm.</p><p>“We need him,” Riku said curtly to the girl.</p><p>“Why? Because Maleficent says you do?”</p><p>“Yes!” Sora said, glad they didn’t have to explain.</p><p>“Gosh, what would Maleficent want with Pinnocchio?” the cricket on Kairi’s shoulder wondered. Oh, so that was the puppet’s name!</p><p>Riku shrugged. “No idea.”</p><p>“You’re just doing her bidding without question?” Kairi stated in disbelief. “Why?”</p><p>“She’s been teaching us!” Sora explained. “And gives us a bedroom and food and stuff! So it’s the least we can do.”</p><p>“But what if she’ll do something bad to him?”</p><p>“She won’t do that,” Sora said confidently. “She’s not as bad as you seem to think! Just because she’s a little Dark doesn’t make her evil.”</p><p>“She’s not just a ‘little Dark’!” The duck countered. “She actually is evil! She’s lying to you!”</p><p>“Then we’ll double-check before we turn Pinocchio over to her,” Riku reasoned, then summoned a dark portal.</p><p>“Oh no you don’t!” Kairi shouted, drawing her keyblade and rushing in front of Riku to prevent him from leaving. The portal fizzled out with the loss of concentration.</p><p>“You’re going to fight us?!” Riku said in disbelief.</p><p>“Kairi!” Sora gasped, stunned that she would do such. </p><p>“What you’re doing is wrong,” Kairi said firmly. “You’ve… you’ve lost your conscience. Both of you have. If I need to fight you to make you see that, so be it.”</p><p>Sora drew his dark blade and stepped in front of Riku, who stepped back; the silverette was holding the puppet, so it’d be up to Sora to fight. “Riku, go,” Sora instructed. “I’ll buy you time.”</p><p>“No. I’m not leaving without—ahhhh!” Riku cried out.</p><p>Sora swerved to find that the duck and dog had snuck behind them, knocking Riku aside and grabbing the puppet. Sora looked between Riku on the ground, the two anthropomorphic animals with the puppet, and Kairi. </p><p>“Riku!” Sora called, as he dismissed his blade and ran to the boy, kneeling beside him.</p><p>“Sora, I’m fine!” Riku said, sitting up, though winced slightly. “Go—” he began to yell, but cut himself off. “Crap, they’re getting away,” he muttered grumpily, and Sora turned to where Riku was looking. </p><p>“Should I have tried fighting them?” Sora wondered.</p><p>Riku took a moment to respond, which he did with a sigh. “No, I guess not. You’d be no match for all three alone. I doubt the two of us could beat them even fighting together…”</p><p>“Yeah,” Sora said sadly. “We could take the duck and dog, but I know I wouldn’t be able to go all-out on Kairi.”</p><p>“Neither would I,” Riku concurred.</p><p>Sora turned back to Riku. The silverette had suggested Sora would be fighting alone, meaning… “Are you hurt?” Sora asked.</p><p>Riku winced. “Yeah, the dog whacked me in the leg pretty hard with that shield… I don’t think it’s broken, but I’m pretty sure it bruised the bone.”</p><p>Sora nodded. “Got it. That’s easy.” Sora positioned his hands over the leg and said “Cura.” Green glowing translucent vines wrapped themselves around the leg and then faded. “Does that feel better?”</p><p>Riku moved his leg around a bit. “Yeah, good as new!” He shook his head slowly, sounding awed as he said, “You really are amazing, Sora.”</p><p>Sora blushed at the unexpected praise. “Where did that come from?”</p><p>“Your healing magic,” Riku explained. “I can barely manage a simple cure, yet you’re already doing cura. If I tried to heal it, the bruise would still be there, just smaller.”</p><p>“It’s not that impressive,” Sora denied. “You can do a lot of much cooler stuff I can’t do,” he pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah, flashy stuff. This is actually really useful.”</p><p>Sora felt his blush deepen. “I-if you say so,” he stammered, then scrambled to change the subject. “I guess we should go report our failure now…”</p><p>“No need,” said Maleficent, appearing from around a corner. “I arrived just in time to see them running with the puppet. Do not despair, however; my associate just informed me that he will not need Pinocchio, after all; I came here to notify you of this.”</p><p>Sora and Riku stood up. “But we still failed,” Sora said sadly, hanging his head. “We had him, but they took him back.”</p><p>Maleficent put her hand on Sora’s shoulder. “Do not be sad about that, my child. We all fail at times. You couldn’t have predicted your former friend to appear and try to fight you.”</p><p>Sora noted the wording. “Former friend…?”</p><p>“Well, she certainly seems to be acting like it,” Maleficent pointed out. “What type of friend turns her blade on a friend with intent to harm?”</p><p>“She didn’t actually attack me…” Sora didn’t want to believe it. Kairi could still be convinced, he knew it. That is, if she even tried to listen… </p><p>Riku sighed. “Sora. I don’t want to believe it either, but the way she was acting… Maleficent’s right. Friends don’t act that way.”</p><p>Sora slouched his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”</p><p>“Now, children, let us return to the castle,” Maleficent said, changing the topic as she summoned a portal. “We have guests again, and the heartless have prepared a feast.”</p><p>Sora scrunched his nose. “By ‘guests’, do you mean that octopus woman, sack monster, fire guy, and paranoid pirate again?” </p><p>“Their names are Ursula, Oogie Boogie, Hades, and Captain Hook,” Maleficent corrected patiently. “Please be sure to use those names, at least to their faces. Now, let us go.” She walked through the portal.</p><p>“Well, at least the stuck-up snake guy won’t be there this time,” Riku whispered to Sora as the two followed.</p><p>Sora snickered. “You mean, ‘Jafar’?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Feelings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora and Riku discuss feelings</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Another short chapter, but the scene is too cute to go with the the chapter before or after it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sora lay in his and Riku’s shared bed—now larger thanks to Maleficent magically expanding it when she realized they’d been sharing—with his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling as he thought about things. Specifically, Riku. More specifically, Sora’s feelings about Riku. He had finally come to a realization, and he wasn’t sure about his feelings regarding it. Specifically, he had realized that he might feel things for Riku that went beyond simple best-friendship. But, did Riku feel the same way? He had wanted to share a paopu fruit with Kairi, during that race… well, he’d said afterwards that it had been a joke, but still. The idea had come into his mind somehow. Then again, there was plenty of evidence showing that maybe Riku did feel the same way: willingly holding Sora’s hand quite often; the fond looks Sora was pretty sure he’d never seen Riku direct at anyone else; cuddling together as they slept; the gentle touches as Riku corrected his posture during training; the desire to always be with Sora; the obvious blushes when Sora said things about him; and that jealousy had been awfully strong to have been just about friendship… </p><p>“What are you thinking about?” Riku asked, and Sora gave a start; somehow the silverette had entered the room without Sora noticing. Riku had a towel over his shoulders, as his long hair was wet thanks to having just showered. It was too bad he’d already put on pajamas—oh. Well, that stray thought was definitely confirmation that Sora’s realization about himself had been correct.</p><p>Sora was sure his face had turned bright red as he looked away and stammered “N-nothing!” </p><p>“Nothing?” Riku said, and Sora was certain Riku had an eyebrow raised even though he couldn’t see his face.</p><p>Sora took a deep breath to calm his blush, then turned back to Riku. “No, not nothing… Um.” He needed a way to confirm if Riku felt the same way. Or if Riku even felt that way about boys, for that matter. Oh! “Were you actually serious with that race?” Sora wondered, sitting up. “The one shortly before the Islands fell,” Sora clarified at Riku’s confused look. “Like, you said it was a joke after you won, but did you actually want to share a paopu fruit with Kairi but then chickened out or something?”</p><p>Riku blinked a few times, clearly thrown by the question. “No,” he finally said. “No, she’s not who I want to share it with… why, did you actually want to?”</p><p>Sora shook his head. “No! I didn’t even realize what you meant when you said that. You started the race without asking me to confirm the terms of winning,” Sora pointed out with a chuckle.</p><p>“Right,” Riku said, looking away. </p><p>Sora frowned as he leaned back on his hands. “Why did you make that bet, then?” Sora wondered. “If you didn’t actually want to do that.”</p><p>Riku… blushed? Hmmm. Then, he sat on the bed next to Sora. “I, well… it was stupid,” Riku said. “I thought you maybe had a crush on her, and wanted to confirm it,” he admitted.</p><p>Sora blinked; now it was his turn to be confused. “What?”</p><p>Riku shrugged. “I guess it was the jealousy talking. Or, maybe thinking you liked her like that is what led to the jealousy being so bad, I dunno.”</p><p>Sora thought about that. Riku had wanted to confirm if Sora liked Kairi in a more-than-friends way?  “Why wouldn’t you just ask me?” Sora wondered. “It’d have saved you the trouble of doing all that.”</p><p>Riku shrugged. “I dunno. Like I said, it was stupid.”</p><p>Sora pondered that. Why would Riku even want to know at all, though? Was it because Riku liked Kairi himself, or… well, Sora didn’t want to get his hopes up. He’d just told Riku he should have just asked, so Sora would do the same. “Why did you even want to know? Did you have a crush on Kairi?”</p><p>Riku shook his head. “No, of course not,” he said with a laugh.</p><p>Sora decided to just go for it. “Well, the only reasons someone would want to know who someone was crushing on would be if they were crushing on the same person… or if they were crushing on the person they’re asking,” Sora said, his heart fluttering slightly and sure he was blushing as he looked side-eyed at Riku.</p><p>Riku froze and stared into space.</p><p>“I’m right, aren’t I?” Sora said, quite pleased with himself.</p><p>Riku made an indistinct high-pitched sound and Sora noticed his face looked like a ripe tomato. Sora felt proud of himself; he was rarely bold like this, and it had been successful!</p><p>“Ri-ku, say something!” Sora said after a few beats, attempting to sound playful, although he was starting to get nervous and second-guess himself.</p><p>“Y-yeah, you’re right,” Riku muttered, now looking at the floor and wringing his hands together nervously.</p><p>Sora then realized that he hadn’t yet expressed that he had the same feelings; no wonder Riku seemed so nervous! Sora explained, “It’s mutual, if you haven’t figured that out.”</p><p>Riku finally looked up, staring at Sora with wide eyes. “It is?” he asked; the silverette seemed truly surprised by that.</p><p>“Yes!” Sora confirmed, beaming. “You really had no idea?”</p><p>Riku’s expression calmed a bit. “Honestly… I thought maybe you might, and thought about confessing a few times, but then I kept second-guessing myself… I mean, maybe it was the jealousy talking, but I kept thinking that you wanted to be with Kairi…”</p><p>Sora smiled. “Well, honestly, I didn’t fully figure things out until tonight, so maybe it’s good that you waited. Like, in retrospect I’ve definitely felt this way for a while, and could kinda tell you did too, but if you’d thrown it at me along with everything else that’s been happening, I’d probably have gotten super overwhelmed.”</p><p>Riku raised an eyebrow. “Tonight? Really?”</p><p>Sora shrugged. “Hey, you know I can be a bit oblivious,” he joked.</p><p>Riku laughed a bit at that. “Well, better late than never—I’ve only been waiting for years,” he teased, seeming much more relaxed.</p><p>“Years!” Sora declared with false dramatics. “Oh, way to one-up me!” he playfully punched Riku on the shoulder. “Now, shut up and kiss me. That’s what people who like each other do, right?”</p><p>Riku’s face reddened again as he looked at Sora. “Um. Yeah…. Yeah, but I’ve… I’ve never…”</p><p>“That’s okay,” Sora said, leaning close to Riku. “I haven’t kissed anyone before either; we’ll learn together.”</p><p>Riku laughed once. “When did you get so suave?” He lifted a hand to Sora’s chin, tilting his face up.</p><p>Sora got impatient. He pushed Riku’s hand away and threw his arms around Riku’s shoulders, smashing their faces together so hard their teeth clacked. Both boys then backed up, putting their hands over their mouths while their teeth recovered.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku chided through laughter.</p><p>“You know I can’t do slow!” Sora pointed out, laughing too. “Why would I be able to with kissing?”</p><p>“I guess you have a point,” Riku said, still trying to calm his laughter. “Okay, okay, let’s try again,” he said as the laughter finally quelled. “This time without breaking our teeth, okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, sounds good,” Sora said, his laughter easing too, sure he was looking at Riku with as much fondness as Riku was looking at him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Neverland</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora and Riku go to Captain Hook's ship to evaluate if the girl he's captured is a Princess. Kairi's group appears there.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maleficent strolled into the training room where Sora and Riku were practicing; Riku was trying some sort of teleportation attack, and Sora was practicing making dark portals, which he felt he’d been getting quite good at.</p><p>“Remember, Sora, that portals require much Darkness to produce; I would recommend halting practice on those for today.”</p><p>“Yes, Ma’am,” Sora said, a bit annoyed. But he’d comply, as already been scolded a couple times for trying to practice more than he should after being told not to, and didn’t want to be again. Not like scolding involved punishment or anything; in fact, scolding wasn’t even the proper term. Sora just disliked disappointing people, and Maleficent’s disappointed expression and tone of voice got to him.</p><p>“Riku, you stop too,” Maleficent said. “Come now, children; I have something special to teach you now.”</p><p>“Something special?” Riku asked, as he and Sora walked over to her.</p><p>“Yes. I believe you two are ready to learn how to summon heartless.”</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Sora sat on the soft velvet bench along the edge of the gaudy cabin of Captain Hook’s ship. He and Riku were here to evaluate whether or not a girl was a princess, although the captain was taking a while to retrieve her. Sora held in his hand the star-shaped seashell wayfinder that Kairi had given him just before the Islands fell, turning it over and over without thinking. She said it’d always tie them together, but every time they saw her she just felt further away.</p><p>“What’s that?” Riku asked, sitting next to Sora.</p><p>“Kairi gave it to me before we left,” Sora told him. “Didn’t she give you one, too?”</p><p>Riku shook his head. “No,” he answered simply.</p><p>“Oh.” Sora frowned. “She said it was a good-luck charm. A promise that we wouldn’t be separated… I thought she meant the three of us. Maybe she just forgot to give you yours, or didn’t get the chance.”</p><p>Riku sighed. “I don’t think so. She… didn’t she ask you to go alone with her?”</p><p>“You heard that?” Sora asked, surprised. “She was joking though… right? At least, she said she was, after I got mad about it…”</p><p>“You got mad?”</p><p>“Well, yeah!” Sora proclaimed. Wasn’t it obvious he would? “Why would she even suggest we go without you? It should have been the three of us…” Sora trailed off, feeling upset again. “She couldn’t have actually been serious… right?”</p><p>Riku shook his head. “I don’t know. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure she had a crush on you. Maybe she still does.”</p><p>“What?!” Sora proclaimed in shock, looking at Riku wide-eyed.</p><p>Riku frowned. “You didn’t know?”</p><p>Sora shook his head. “No,” he replied, then laughed a little. “Riku, you of all people should know how oblivious I can be to that stuff,” he said with a blush, slipping his hand into the silverette’s.</p><p>“True,” Riku said with a chuckle.</p><p>Sora frowned, looking at the wayfinder again. “What should I do?” he asked.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“With this,” Sora said, holding up the charm. “We do keep finding her, but whenever we do it just feels like she’s further away, like a curse more than a good-luck charm. Should I give it back?” Sora wondered.</p><p>Riku bit his lip as he pondered that. Finally, he said, “That’s really up to you. But if you do, she’ll probably take it as you, and by extension me, no longer wanting to be friends with her.”</p><p>Sora thought about that for a moment. That was a good point… but still… “I don’t know if she even wants to be… She seems convinced that we’re bad for using the Darkness and following Maleficent. She believes everything the duck and dog say.”</p><p>Riku sighed. “True,” he acknowledged. “But, hey, we can control the heartless now! So maybe that’ll help her come around.”</p><p>Sora pondered this. Would Kairi be more willing to listen if she saw that the heartless could be controlled? But... “But what if she still doesn’t?”</p><p>“Then I guess we should give up,” Riku said sadly.</p><p>Sora sighed and leaned into Riku’s side. “Yeah…” he said, then remembered something. “Hey, before the dark storm, you suggested we share a paopu fruit with Kairi. Do you think if we had shared a paopu fruit that things would be different?”</p><p>“You and Kairi?” Riku asked warily, tensing slightly, then Sora remembered that technically it’d been a race for who got to share with Kairi, even if both boys had later confirmed that neither had actually wanted to. That wasn’t what Sora meant to imply!</p><p>Sora quickly shook his head. “No! All three of us.”</p><p>Riku took a moment to answer. “I don’t know,” he concluded. “Maybe, maybe not.”</p><p>Sora scrunched his nose. “Ri-ku! That’s not an answer!”</p><p>Riku shrugged. “Hey, it is what it is, right? No use talking about what-ifs when it’s in the past. It’s not going to change what happened.”</p><p>Sora sighed. “I guess that’s true…”</p><p>Suddenly, the ship shook and there was a loud sound from the deck! Had something crashed into them?</p><p>“Whoa!” Sora said, nearly sliding off the bench, but Riku caught him around the waist.</p><p>“Careful, Sora,” Riku said.</p><p>“Hehe, I know,” Sora said with a blush, highly aware of the placement of Riku’s hands. But, it wasn’t the time for that (and the captain made them promise ‘no shenanigans’ aboard his ship). “Let’s go find out what happened,” Sora said, shaking Riku off and leaping up to look out the window. He let out a gasp as he saw who was there, climbing out of a crashed GummiShip.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Riku asked, joining Sora.</p><p>“It’s Kairi! And it looks like Captain Hook is confronting her… oh, no! He probably thinks she’s an enemy!”</p><p>“Then we should get out there,” Riku said with urgency, grabbing Sora’s hand and rushing out the door.</p><p>The two headed down a small set of stairs to exit onto a balcony above the main deck.</p><p>“STOP!” Sora yelled, noticing weapons were being drawn. </p><p>“She’s our friend,” Riku explained to Captain Hook. “Don’t hurt her.”</p><p>“The duck and dog are fair game though,” Sora decided.</p><p>The captain crossed his arms and scowled at the boys. “Are you two giving orders on MY ship? Know your places!”</p><p>“We don’t work for you!” Sora pointed out, feeling slightly angry for some reason.</p><p>“Yeah, aren’t you supposed to be doing something for us?” Riku reminded the captain, rather cockily.</p><p>Captain Hook gritted his teeth and glared at the boys. “Why you—”</p><p>“Captain!” the first mate, Smee, called. “They’re getting away!”</p><p>The two boys and Captain Hook turned to see Kairi and her two companions running. Sora held out his hand in the way Maleficent had taught them, summoning six shadow heartless in front of the group to stop them.</p><p>“Nice,” Riku said, grinning as he leaned on the railing, and Sora grinned back, moving to mirror the position. He felt a little proud of himself; before he’d only been able to summon three.</p><p>“Aw, Phooey!” the duck squawked, backing up a bit as he held out his staff, the dog readied his shield, and Kairi summoned her keyblade.</p><p>Sora and Riku watched the three fight. Once Sora’s heartless were defeated, Riku summoned a few of his own.</p><p>“They’re really good at fighting,” Sora said, feeling a little jealous, then realized something. “Hey, tell your heartless to back off.”</p><p>“What? But then they’ll escape!” Riku protested.</p><p>Sora shook his head. “No! They’ll see that we can control them! We can prove they’re not a threat!”</p><p>Riku blinked, then his eyes widened in realization. “Right!” He turned to look at the heartless, holding his hand out and a look of concentration crossing his face.</p><p>“Wak! Why’d they stop?” the duck asked.</p><p>Riku jumped down onto the deck, and Sora followed.</p><p>“They stopped because I told them to,” Riku explained.</p><p>Kairi gasped. “You can control them?”</p><p>“Yup!” Sora said cheerfully. “See? They’re not that bad!”</p><p>“Not bad?” Kairi said in disbelief. “Sora, how can you say that? They’re Dark creatures! If Riku’s controlling them, that means… Sora, you need to get away from him,” she said firmly.</p><p>Sora looked at Kairi, confused. “What? Why would I do that?”</p><p>“Because he’s fallen too far! But we can still save you,” she said with determination. Oh. Did Kairi think she could drag them to her side, the one of Light?</p><p>Sora scoffed. “There’s nothing to save me from—especially not Riku.”</p><p>“But summoning heartless means he’s a bad guy!” Donald squawked.</p><p>Sora felt a flash of anger and gave the trio a dark look. “Yeah? Then I guess I’m a bad guy, too!” he declared. “That first round was mine. He’s another.” Sora held out his hand to summon a few shadows. “Should I order them to attack?”</p><p>Kairi gasped and backed up a few steps.</p><p>“Okay, children, playtime’s over!” Captain Hook said angrily, and a hatch opened under Kairi, Goofy, and Donald.</p><p>“Kairi!” Sora called in surprise, worried despite having been on the verge of sicing heartless at her.</p><p>“It’s fine, boy, they just went to the brig,” Captain Hook said grumpily. </p><p>“Oh, but Sir,” Smee said. “Isn’t that where the girl is?”</p><p>“The girl?” Sora asked, momentarily confused, then realized Hook didn’t mean Kairi, rather... “Oh, right. The one you’re supposed to be showing us,” Sora reminded Hook. What was her name again? Windy?</p><p>“What do you plan to do with Kairi?” Riku demanded.</p><p>Hook rolled his eyes and he waved a hand as he turned away from them. “Boy, I don’t give a rat’s ass about that girl. If you or Maleficent don’t want her, we’ll drop her off somewhere. Now scurry on back to the cabin; I’ll bring you the Princess.”</p><p>“Sir!” a crewman called. “Peter Pan has been sighted aboard the ship!”</p><p>Hook’s eyes darkened. “Pan,” he hissed, then turned to the boys. “Correction: I will bring you the girl once I deal with that scoundrel, who is no doubt attempting to rescue her.”</p><p>“Do you need us to help you?” Sora offered.</p><p>“Hmph. No, I can handle him myself,” Hook said as he stomped off—well, started to stomp off. He froze, looking frightened for some reason. “Do you hear… ticking…?” he asked his first mate.</p><p>“No, Sir,” Smee said.</p><p>“R-right, must be my imagination,” the captain grumbled, then walked off again, looking rattled.</p><p>Riku and Sora turned to each other. Both shrugged, then they headed back to the cabin.</p><p>“Well, I guess we got our answer,” Sora said dejectedly as he flopped back onto the bench, picking up the wayfinder he’d accidentally left there and staring at it again.</p><p>“Well, we didn’t get that much of an opportunity to talk to her,” Riku reasoned. “Maybe if we can talk to her without being in the middle of a fight it’ll end differently? Or without the duck and dog?” Sora couldn’t tell if Riku was saying that because he actually believed it or if he was just trying to comfort Sora.</p><p>Sora crossed his arms and scowled. “You heard her. We’re ‘bad guys’.”</p><p>“Yeah, but she doesn’t know any better,” Riku argued.</p><p>“We gave her plenty of opportunities to listen, Riku. She clearly doesn’t want to.”</p><p>Riku sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Still…”</p><p>“Well, we could always try kidnapping her. Then we can force her to listen.”</p><p>“Sora!”</p><p>Sora laughed. “Relax, Riku, I’m joking. Mostly.” He gave Riku a wink.</p><p>Riku shook his head slowly, chuckling nervously. “You scare me sometimes, Sora.” He didn’t mean that seriously, Sora was pretty sure.</p><p>Sora grinned. “I know,” he teased back.</p><p>Sora leaned into Riku while the silverette put his arms around Sora’s shoulders, and the two drifted into amicable silence. </p><p>“I’m bored,” Sora said after a while. “When’s he going to get here with Windy?” he wondered.</p><p>“Wendy,” Riku corrected. “And I dunno. He said he had to take care of an intruder first.”</p><p>“Wanna make out, then?” Sora asked, aiming for a coy tone as he looked up at Riku. It was a good way to quell boredom.</p><p>Riku sighed, looking down at Sora with a soft, amused expression. “I do, but didn’t Hook say ‘no shenanigans’?”</p><p>“Pfft. It’s just kissing,” Sora pointed out with an eye roll. “It’s not like we’ll be getting spunk all over or something.”</p><p>Riku’s face immediately turned berry red. “Sora!” he proclaimed in a scandalized tone. They hadn’t even discussed going beyond kissing yet in any regards, let alone to that extent, so Riku’s reaction was understandable; Sora found himself enjoying that he could get such a fun reaction out of the silverette.</p><p>Sora laughed and sat up slightly while still leaning on Riku a little. “Well? Wanna make out or not?” he asked, grinning at Riku as he looked up and into the silverette’s sapphire eyes.</p><p>Riku smiled back. “Okay, fine.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to Sora’s; Sora preened at the affection, opening his mouth slightly… </p><p>Then, the door opened.</p><p>Sora squeaked slightly and hopped up, putting his hands out in front of him. “There were no shenanigans! We—” Sora cut himself off upon realizing that it was not the pirate captain in the doorway.</p><p>“Kairi?” Riku asked warily, standing up too. Sora hoped Kairi had not caught on to what she’d walked in on.</p><p>The duck pushed past Kairi, and the redhead moved forwards to also let in the dog and… </p><p>“The girl!” Sora declared, using a darkness-enhanced dash to get to Wendy before they could try to protect her. Sora grabbed the puzzled girl’s wrist and tugged her away from the group.</p><p>“What are you doing?!” Kairi declared, running towards them, but Riku blocked her.</p><p>“Oh, my,” Wendy said. “Who might you be?”</p><p>Sora blinked, thrown off by how casual the girl was acting. </p><p>“Sora, just check her already!” Riku said, blocking a strike by Kairi; it seemed the redhead was fully prepared to fight her frien—former friends.</p><p>Sora summoned some heartless to help Riku, then turned back to Wendy. He clutched her wrist tightly, closing his eyes and focusing on her heart… She did have a large amount of Light, but he sensed a small sliver of Darkness hiding away.</p><p>“What are you doing?!” Kairi yelled, slipping past Riku as Donald and Goofy double-teamed him. She grabbed Sora’s arm to pull him away from the girl.</p><p>Sora felt a massive wave of Light brush over him as he sensed both girls’ hearts at once. Sora’s eyes widened; he let go of Wendy and tugged his arm away from Kairi, then stumbled back a little, the Light overwhelming. Was Kairi a Princess?! No, there was no way… but what other reason was there to have no Darkness?</p><p>Sora quickly scurried over to Riku, then pulled him away by the wrist. “Let’s go. She’s not one of them,” Sora testily told the silverette. Maybe Maleficent had better luck with her lead, a girl named Bella or something along those lines.</p><p>“You sure?” Riku asked.</p><p>“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Sora snapped, glaring at Riku. “Let’s go.”</p><p>Riku looked confused at that. “Didn’t you want to talk to Kairi?”</p><p>Sora glanced at the redhead, who was staring at the two wide-eyed, before looking back to Riku, letting go of the silverette’s wrist to cross his arms. “No,” Sora said harshly. “She’s not going to accept the Darkness, no matter what we say.” More accurately, wasn’t capable of it.</p><p>“Of course I’d never accept the Darkness!” Kairi declared. “Sora, you shouldn’t either! What’s happened to you?!  You…” her voice quieted. “You said you wouldn’t change… but you’ve changed even more than Riku did…”</p><p>“Well, that’s life,” Sora harshly retorted. “People change. YOU changed too, Kairi.” Sora pulled the wayfinder from his pocket. “Here. This is worthless,” he said, flinging it towards Kairi.</p><p>Kairi caught the object, and then stared at it in shock. “Sora…” she began, seeming unsure what to say next, but Sora didn’t give her the opportunity to think about it.</p><p>“Let’s go, Riku,” Sora said firmly, grabbing Riku’s wrist again and summoning a dark portal. He took one last look—well, more like dark glare—at Kairi, who was staring at him in aghast confusion, and then summoned a shadow of Kairi to fight her before forcefully pulling Riku through the portal.</p><p>Sora let go of Riku’s wrist and took a few deep breaths to calm down after exiting the portal into the entrance hall of Maleficent’s castle.</p><p>“You okay?” Riku asked warily, rubbing his wrist.</p><p>“Y-yeah, I’m f-fine,” Sora stuttered, then swayed slightly, feeling suddenly dizzy and immensely fatigued. </p><p>Riku put his hand on Sora’s shoulder to steady him before he could fall. “Yeah, that’s totally fine,” he said flatly.</p><p>“I just need a moment,” Sora insisted. “That was just a lot…”</p><p>“You’ve been using too much Darkness today,” Riku claimed.</p><p>“No, I can handle it,” Sora argued, although he realized the physical symptoms said otherwise.</p><p>“Sora, remember what Maleficent said—you can lose your heart if you let the Darkness overtake you,” Riku reminded him, voice laced with concern.</p><p>“Then I won’t let it overtake me,” Sora snapped, stepping away and giving Riku a glare. “I’m not weak, Riku!”</p><p>“I didn’t say you were,” Riku said gently.</p><p>“You didn’t have to. I know I’m weak. But I’m getting stronger! Because of the Darkness! I’m strong enough to control it!”</p><p>“Sora…” Riku stepped forwards and put a hand on Sora’s shoulder.</p><p>Sora pushed it away and turned on his heel, stomping off. “I can handle it! You’ll see!” </p><p>Sora turned a corner and immediately leaned against the wall, breathing heavily and sweating slightly. He heard Riku’s footsteps… well, so much for the show of strength. Sora pushed himself away from the wall and took a step, staggering slightly. He had to prove… prove that he… that he could handle… handle the Darkness…</p><p>“Sora!” Riku called, catching Sora as he lost consciousness.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Beast</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora meets a man in a brown robe. Then, a beast infiltrates the castle, and Riku and Sora confront it only for Kairi to intercede.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sora sat against a cliff face near the base of Hollow Bastion’s huge waterfall, sulking. It’d been a few days since the pirate ship, but Riku still kept trying to remind Sora about the Darkness every time he used any amount! What happened to the Riku that had been excited about it at the start of this all? Yeah, maybe Sora was using it a lot more than Riku used it now, even though Riku still had more advanced skills, but they’d agreed it wasn’t bad as long as you were in control of it. Sora was in control! Yeah, he fainted once, but that was a fluke. It wouldn’t happen again, Sora was sure. But how to prove that to Riku? If he could learn those stronger skills that Riku used, maybe then Riku would see that Sora was strong enough to handle the amount of Darkness he was using. Well, in that case, Sora would have to learn those skills, and then he’d show Riku how strong he was! Riku didn’t have to worry about Sora.</p><p>“You cannot get stronger simply by trying to overpower the Darkness,” a deep voice said from nearby. A familiar voice… no one seemed to be around, though.</p><p>“Who are you?” Sora asked aloud, voice echoing around the chasm as he leapt up, brandishing his Dark blade. “Show yourself!”</p><p>The voice chuckled, and a figure in a brown robe materialized near Sora. The same figure Sora had seen on the Destiny Islands shortly before the door had opened. “Relax,” the figure said. “I mean you no harm. I only wish to aid you.”</p><p>“Aid me?” Sora asked, not lowering his weapon as he was suspicious of the figure. “How?”</p><p>“Well, you wish to become stronger, do you not? Via the Darkness?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Sora confirmed. “How do you know that?” Had he said it aloud?</p><p>“Let’s just say that you remind me of myself,” the figure said mysteriously. “Now, do you want my help, or not?”</p><p>Sora lowered his weapon, confident the figure wouldn’t attack, but didn’t dismiss it. “Why would I want your help? Can you help me control the Darkness more?”</p><p>“Yes, and no. Firstly, one does not simply ‘control’ the Darkness. You must embrace it; allow it to lead you as much as you lead it. Merely attempting to overpower it will get you nowhere.”</p><p>Sora frowned. “But Maleficent said—”</p><p>“That witch does not understand the Darkness the way I do. She thinks everything can be controlled, which will be her downfall. With my help, I can make you stronger than even her. Stronger than anyone.”</p><p>“Stronger than anyone…” Sora mused, liking the sound of that. “Why should I trust you?” he asked, skeptical. It sounded too good to be true.</p><p>“Whether you trust me or not, I am the only one that can help you attain the strength you desire. I understand the Darkness better than anyone.”</p><p>Sora frowned and looked at the ground, thinking hard about that. Maybe…</p><p>“Sora?” Someone loudly called. Riku. Riku was searching for Sora. </p><p>Sora looked up, but the figure in the brown robe had vanished.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku called again, this time having spotted him. Riku jumped down the floating rocks around the waterfall until he reached where Sora stood.</p><p>“If you’re here to lecture me more about the Darkness, I’m not interested,” Sora said, turning away and crossing his arms.</p><p>“What?” Riku sounded surprised. “No, I’m just worried about you. Maleficent said there’s an intruder, some beast that somehow managed to claw his way through the barriers between worlds. When I didn’t find you in the castle, I got worried…”</p><p>“I can take care of myself, Riku,” Sora said sourly.</p><p>“Huh?” Riku sounded confused. “Yeah, I know that. I wasn’t saying you can’t.”</p><p>“Really? ’Cause that’s what it sounded like.”</p><p>Riku gently placed a hand on Sora’s shoulder; Sora let him. “Sora, I didn’t mean it like that. I just worry, you know that; I can’t help it. Please don’t be mad.”</p><p>Sora sighed and dropped his arms. “I’m not mad,” he said, realizing that he had been taking all his frustration out on Riku. Sora was annoyed with himself for not being strong, not at Riku, who just wanted what was best for Sora; it wasn’t his fault he didn’t know what was best. “Sorry; I guess I’m being a bit of a handful, huh?” Sora said jokingly, leaning into Riku’s hand.</p><p>Riku got the message and stepped forwards to pull Sora into a hug. “Yeah, maybe a little,” he said with a laugh. Then he backed up. “Let’s head back to the castle, okay?”</p><p>Sora shook his head, getting an idea. “No, let’s go swimming!” he declared excitedly, the dark mood fading with that proclamation.</p><p>“Swimming?” Riku asked, confused. </p><p>“Yeah! Right here!” Sora gestured to the river next to them.</p><p>“We don’t have swimsuits,” Riku pointed out.</p><p>“Since when did that matter?”</p><p>Riku blinked. “...Why do I feel like this is just some convoluted attempt to see me naked?”</p><p>Sora was sure his face resembled a tomato, although he didn’t deny it, even though that had not been what he'd been thinking until Riku mentioned it.</p><p>Riku raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, Sora? Are we boyfriends or not? You know all you need to do is ask,” he said with a conspiratorial grin.</p><p>Sora blushed. No he had not known. He had not seen Riku naked since they’d become boyfriends. Which would be why it now mattered… skinny dipping with someone you were dating had a whole new set of possibilities attached.</p><p>“So… wanna do it?” Sora asked, sure his face was cherry-red. “We can… er… make out and stuff in the water, too?”</p><p>Riku looked amused at that. He raised an eyebrow. “‘And stuff’?” he quoted.</p><p>“Yeah, ‘and stuff’,” Sora repeated, stepping into Riku’s space and putting his hands on the silverette’s hips, looking up at Riku with a coy expression.</p><p>Riku brushed Sora’s cheek with the back of his hand, then froze. “Wait, I think I hear something,” he stated.</p><p>Sora tilted his head, focusing on listening. “Footsteps?” Sora suggested. “Heavy footsteps…”</p><p>“Oh, crap, that’s right! The beast!” Riku recalled.</p><p>Sora stepped back and sighed. “Of course it is… well, let’s go defeat it. We can celebrate the victory with… shenanigans,” he said, recalling the word Hook had used to imply… that sort of thing.</p><p>Riku began laughing. ‘Shenanigans’? Really Sora?”</p><p>Sora shrugged. “What, would you rather I say something like—”</p><p>“Okay, nevermind, ‘shenanigans’ works!” Riku quickly interrupted with much embarrassment, anticipating what Sora had been about to say.</p><p>A loud roar bellowed from the floating stone platforms above the boys.</p><p>Sora grinned. “That’s our cue!” he declared, leaping up onto the nearest platform, then progressively higher via more. Riku followed.</p><p>“What are you?!” the beast roared as the two boys landed in front of him. Huh. The beast was fully sentient; Sora hadn’t expected that.</p><p>“We’re here to eliminate you,” Sora said simply.</p><p>“No, we need to capture him,” Riku corrected. </p><p>“What? Why?”</p><p>“Maleficent said that she needs to figure out how he got here,” Riku explained. “She said if we encounter him, we need to capture him, unless we can find out before then.”</p><p>Sora rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said, then turned to the beast. “You can come with us willingly, or fight.”</p><p>“Belle,” the beast said with a growl. “Tell me where Belle is!” Belle? Oh, the Princess whom Maleficent had captured recently! The beast was here to rescue her. Well, he most certainly would not be doing that.</p><p>Sora laughed jarringly. “Doesn’t matter. You won’t ever be seeing her again.”</p><p>Riku looked at Sora with a raised eyebrow. “A little harsh, Sora…” he noted, then turned to the beast. “We’ll take you to her if you come willingly.”</p><p>“I don’t believe you!” the beast declared. “Tell me where she is, or I’ll kill you!”</p><p>Sora scoffed. “The odds are in our favor,” he said cockily.</p><p>“Sora, what are you doing?” Riku whispered to him. “We don’t need to fight him; we can negotiate.”</p><p>Sora shook his head, whispering back, “No, I don’t think he’ll listen. Let’s just fight.”</p><p>“This isn’t some sort of power play thing, is it?” Riku wondered. “You don’t need to prove your strength or anything, you know. You’re being reckless.”</p><p>Sora laughed once. “No, I’m not. Come on, let’s fight.” </p><p>Sora leaped forwards, brandishing his blade. Riku sighed, but followed suit. Sora’s blow was blocked, but Riku skidded to land a solid blow to the beast’s leg, causing him to fall to a knee in pain. Sora and Riku both leapt back to reconvene.</p><p>The beast tried to stand, so Sora used a binding spell on him. Dark ropes circled his wrists and wrapped around his upper arms and chest. Sora didn’t bother using it on the legs as the beast couldn’t actually stand regardless of how hard he was trying to.</p><p>“That was boring,” Sora complained.</p><p>“We’re not here for entertainment,” Riku reminded Sora.</p><p>“Speak for yourself.” Sora walked up to the beast, held out his blade, and said to him, “Now, tell us how you got here. We’re not above torturing it out of you.”</p><p>“Yes we are!” Riku hissed. “Sora, what are you doing?!”</p><p>Sora slashed the beast’s shoulder. The beast cringed and his hand twitched, instinctually moving to put a hand on the wound but stopped by the bindings. “All I did was believe,” the beast divulged. “I believed I could get here, and I did. Now, where’s Belle?!”</p><p>“BS,” Sora said vehemently. “You can’t get anywhere simply by ‘believing’. That’s stupid.”</p><p>“He has a point,” Riku said to the beast as he crossed his arms. “How’d you really do it?”</p><p>“I told you, I believed,” the beast insisted.</p><p>Sora slashed the beast across the cheek and leaned in to speak into his ear. “Liar. Next time, I chop a finger off,” he warned, voice dripping with poison, although he seriously would not actually go that far. Probably.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku hissed.</p><p>“Relax; it’s a threat, not truth,” Sora whispered to Riku, standing straight again.</p><p>“What are you doing?!” came a high-pitched shout, and Sora’s blade, which had been hovering near the beast’s throat, was knocked away by a silver keyblade.</p><p>“Kairi?!” Sora gasped, staggering backwards, thrown off-balance by the surprise attack.</p><p>The girl stood her ground, in-between Sora and the best, keyblade pointing directly at Sora. “Are you seriously TORTURING someone?!” she said with disbelief. “What gives you the right to do this?”</p><p>“This beast is trespassing on our home; we have every right,” Sora explained as he crossed his arms, trying to regain control of the situation. “So are you, actually; consider yourself lucky we already know how you got here, or we’d be torturing you too,” he said coldly.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku said. “No, no we wouldn’t!”</p><p>Sora scoffed. “Maybe <i>you</i> wouldn’t.”</p><p>Kairi looked at Sora with wide eyes. “Sora... what happened to you?” she asked quietly, almost sounding fearful. Her grip on the keyblade shook slightly. “Why are you acting so.. so… so horrible?”</p><p>“Sora, she’s right,” Riku said, sounding worried. “This isn’t like you. You’re not this cruel.”</p><p>Sora glared at Riku. “Oh, so you’re siding with her, now?!” he accused, although a voice in the corner of his mind reminded Sora that what they were saying was true. Sora ignored it.</p><p>Riku shook his head, looking concerned. “No, I’m not. I’m just saying that she has a point.”</p><p>Kairi dismissed her keyblade. “Sora,” the redhead said gently as she reached out and put a hand on Sora’s arm.</p><p>“Ah!” Sora gasped, pulling his arm away and staggering backwards at the flood of Light emitted via that touch, although there was no visual for it. It burned! Sora realized at that moment that, yes, Kairi was definitely a Princess of Light.</p><p>“Sora, what’s wrong!?” Riku frantically asked in reaction to the display.</p><p>Sora shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he said, then turned and grabbed Riku’s wrist. “Let’s go,” he decided, roughly pulling the silverette away to head back to the castle.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Final Princess</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Riku and Sora are ordered to capture Kairi.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My boss: Why are you finishing your work so late at night? Am I assigning too much?<br/>Me: *Side-eyes fanfiction I've been writing during typical work hours* No, I've just been... distracted.<br/>(I.E., managing my own hours while I work from home is difficult for me, which is good news for all you following this I suppose.)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You are sure of this?” Maleficent demanded.</p><p>“Yes,” Sora confirmed. He had just informed Maleficent that Kairi was undoubtedly a Princess of Light.</p><p>“Well, the good news is she’s on this world already, playing around with all the puzzles and other security things,” Riku reminded the Dark fairy.</p><p>“Well, then, what are you waiting for? Capture her!” Maleficent ordered. She seemed unusually high-strung, which was understandable given the current situation. “I will stay here and guard the other Princesses.”</p><p>Sora wasn’t quite sure if Maleficent simply didn’t want to do the dirty work or if she truly felt they needed guarding. Oh, well; Sora had been itching to fight Kairi anyway. He wanted to prove to her how powerful he’d become, how strong the Darkness had made him. Prove that he didn’t need that stupid keyblade, that her Light wasn’t as almighty as she seemed to think. Sora didn’t need to return to the Light; he was perfectly comfortable with the Dark. Kairi needed to accept that; if fighting her is what it took for her to see that, then so be it.</p><p>“Let’s go,” Sora told Riku as he turned and walked out of the room. The silverette followed.</p><p>The boys found Kairi in the entrance hall with Donald and Goofy fighting off some heartless. Sora, from the top of the stairs along with Riku, waved a hand, dismissing them.</p><p>“Huh? Where’d they go?” the duck squawked.</p><p>“We told them to stand down,” Riku explained, as he and Sora descended the stairs. “Now, why are you here?”</p><p>“We’re here because Maleficent is up to no good, and we need to stop her!” Kairi declared, her keyblade raised and in a defensive stance. “And you, if you’re still working for her!”</p><p>“We’re not ‘working for her’,” Sora said with an eye roll. “We’re her apprentices.”</p><p>“That’s even worse!”</p><p>“Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway,” Sora said. “You’re coming with us.”</p><p>“I’ve told you before,” Kairi metered, “I have no intention of joining you as long as you’re with the Darkness.”</p><p>“We’re not asking this time,” Riku said ominously, drawing his sword. Sora followed suit.</p><p>Kairi’s face paled. “You’re really going to try to take me by force? Why?” she asked in a whisper.</p><p>“Maleficent needs you, and as you’re not coming willingly, you’ve left us no other choice.”</p><p>Kairi blinked, seeming confused. “She needs me? But why?”</p><p>“Because you’re the final Princess of Light,” Sora told her. Were they revealing too much information? Probably. But it was fun—Sora could see why villains always did such (except Sora wasn’t a villain! Nope, definitely not…). “We need you and the other Princesses to open the Master Keyhole, so Maleficent can control all the heartless and save everyone!”</p><p>Kairi’s expression steeled. “Is that what she told you? She’s lying, Sora! Maleficent is an evil witch hellbent on ruling everything! There’s no way she’s going to use heartless to help people! She’ll use them to take over everything.”</p><p>“How do you know that for certain?” Riku countered. “All you know is what you’ve been told by others.”</p><p>“By a lot of others! She’s a manipulative evil witch! This is what she does; she lures people in with false promises and manipulates them to do her bidding. It’s a classic evil villain trope!”</p><p>“Maybe you wouldn’t think that if you got to know her,” Sora suggested. “Come on, Kairi. Just talk to her.”</p><p>“No! You’re… you’re deluded! If I have to fight you to make you see reason, I will!” Kairi stated with conviction as she firmed her stance.</p><p>Sora shrugged. “Fine with us. Right, Riku?”</p><p>Riku nodded, though appeared a bit apprehensive. “Yeah.”</p><p>“Let’s try the new Darkness suit things,” Sora suggested quietly to the silverette.</p><p>Riku frowned and shook his head. “It’s dangerous. We shouldn’t use them yet,” he whispered back.</p><p>Sora sighed in frustration. “Seriously, Riku? Well, I’m using it.” </p><p>“Well? Are you going to fight or not?” Kairi demanded.</p><p>“Oh, we’re definitely going to fight,” Sora said with a grin, then held his arms out and concentrated. A skin-tight suit of darkness crawled across him, covering all but his head. It consisted of bands of dark purples, blues, and crimson, and felt slightly rubbery, like the wetsuits divers wore. It was certainly weird, but Sora could feel the power the suit brought as it formed, so a little weirdness could be forgiven.</p><p>Sora moved faster than ever; within a second he was in front of Kairi, slashing at her. Kairi put up her keyblade to block, then pushed him back. Sora tried a similar strike, this time with a twist to get slightly behind her; Kairi blocked again. She had much better reflexes than expected.</p><p>“Sora, please stop!” Kairi begged. “You shouldn’t be using the Darkness like that!”</p><p>“What, still got delusions that the Light is better?” Sora said bitterly, as he hopped back and circled her slowly, looking for an opening.</p><p>“Yes!” Kairi confirmed. “Sora, you don’t belong on the side of Dark! I know you; you’re better than this!”</p><p>Sora scoffed. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought you did,” he said in an ominous tone.</p><p>Sora sensed a burst of magic from off to the side of him; he stepped to the side to dodge the fireball the duck threw at him. Without looking, Sora sent a beam of darkness towards the duck, more powerful than he could ever do before. He heard an odd clanging sound; Sora glanced to the side, noting that the dog seemed to have blocked it. Riku, who had been fighting the two, had been knocked to the ground, which is what gave the duck the opportunity, but he seemed to be fine, already running towards the two again, looking especially angry.</p><p>Kairi took the opportunity Sora’s brief distraction offered to slam into him, impacting him on the side with her keyblade. Sora shouted out in surprise as he was flung to the side and tumbled to the ground, but found that, thanks to the Dark suit, it didn’t do as much damage as expected. He jumped back to his feet, quickly rushing to strike—which Kairi surprisingly blocked again. It looked like she’d used some sort of light barrier, as well, that repelled the Darkness flowing around his weapon, reducing the power of the blows. Sora hadn’t seen a shield like that before; maybe it was a Princess of Light thing.</p><p>The battle went on for a few more minutes in a similar fashion; Kairi was an incredible fighter, to Sora’s shock. The duck and dog seemed to be holding their own against Riku, too…</p><p>Kairi landed a blow right to Sora’s stomach, and he fell to his knees. Was this the end of the fight? Had Sora… lost? Impossible. He was stronger; he had the Darkness. How? How could Kairi be this powerful?</p><p>The Darkness suit dissipated as Sora tried to catch his breath. He looked up at Kairi, who had her keyblade pointed towards him. Riku, off to Sora’s side, seemed to be in a similar position, with the duck and dog guarding him. Riku stood up, backing away and to the side slowly. When he was close enough to Sora he grabbed his wrist to help pull Sora up.</p><p>“This isn’t over!” Sora shouted to Kairi as Riku led him away at a run, escaping down a corridor.</p><p>“That went well,” Sora said sarcastically, once they were a sufficient enough distance away and caught their breaths.</p><p>“I’m really starting to think that we actually are the villains,” Riku commented. Sora wasn’t sure if the silverette was serious or joking.</p><p>Sora found he didn’t care either way.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Possession</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora takes Ansem up on his offer. Things don't go as planned.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know the formatting is a bit off, with bigger spaces between paragraphs, but when I paste stuff into the "rich text editor" that happens, and I need to use that one for this chapter. There's too many italics for me to use the plain text html box like usual; I am not spending an hour adding in all the html for the italics.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sora, arms crossed, tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Riku to finish using the bathroom. This totally wasn’t the time for that! They had to go help Maleficent—Kairi and her companions were probably close to the chamber of Princesses by now, fully prepared to fight. Sora was definitely ready for Round 2 now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you truly?” came a voice, and Sora turned to see the robed figure.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Am I what?” Sora snapped.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you truly ready to face them? You lost the first time.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, that was a fluke,” Sora said. “I’ll win this time.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not if you keep trying to control the Darkness. As I said before, you must accept the Darkness. Join with it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora thought about that. “What does that entail?” he asked.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If you accept me into your heart, I will help you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora narrowed his eyes at the figure. “That seems rather sketchy.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you want to be stronger than Kairi or not?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora paused. Yes, he did. But this way?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There’s no other way,” the figure said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora gave it a few more seconds of thought. He did want more power… if this was what he had to do to get it, so be it. “Okay,” Sora told the figure. “What do I have to do?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The figure began dissolving into particles of Darkness, which flew towards Sora, disappearing as they seeped into his chest, right where his heart was—seems the ‘into the heart’ bit was literal. Sora braced himself as the Dark energy merged with him, feeling like ice crawling through his veins. The cold then mostly dissipated, although he still felt a slight chill around his heart. It was a little uncomfortable, but Sora could deal with that if it meant he’d be more powerful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, what’s your name, anyway?” Sora wondered to the empty air.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ansem,</span>
  </em>
  <span> the figure impacted directly into Sora’s mind. That was kinda creepy; Sora wondered if he’d made the right choice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Right choice or not, there is no going back now,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Ansem said ominously.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The nearby door opened, and Riku stepped into the hallway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Finally!” Sora declared. “That took forever!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who were you talking to?” Riku asked curiously, looking around.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t tell him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No one,” Sora lied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Really? But I heard you… I couldn’t catch what you were saying but you were definitely talking…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora shrugged. “Thinking aloud, I guess. Come on, let’s go.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora led the way as they trekked through the corridors to where the Princesses and Keyhole were. Riku seemed uneasy, but Sora walked with confidence. He knew he could defeat Kairi this time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wait,” Riku called quietly as they were about to enter the room, and Sora turned to look at him. “I hear them talking; let’s listen in first.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora looked at Riku curiously, not quite understanding why he wouldn’t want to jump right in, but complied. The two crept quietly towards the hall, hiding around a corner while they listened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora’s eyes widened in horror as he processed what Maleficent was monologuing. She… Kairi had actually been telling the truth? Maleficent was going to use the heartless to rule all worlds, not save them? No way. That meant Sora and Riku… they were… they were the evil villain’s minions? That… no. That couldn’t be… true… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Does it matter?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora blinked. “Huh?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You have the power you sought. Does it matter how you got it?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora didn’t reply to Ansem. It did matter… Sora wanted power, yeah, but he didn’t want to be evil.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, then, you should kill her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora considered that. Could he? Was that possible?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We should help Kairi fight,” Riku whispered, on the same page. “If we all fight together, I think we can win.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No. Not how you currently are; she is much too powerful. However, there is a special Dark keyblade I can help you form. With it, you can easily defeat her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sora, are you listening?” Riku prodded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora nodded absentmindedly, more focused on what Ansem was saying than Riku. A special keyblade? And it’d allow him to defeat Maleficent?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Correct. You and your so-called friends will surely fail unless you obtain the power of that keyblade. However, you must first do something to construct the keyblade, and you must act now. Let Riku fight, and join him in a little bit.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You fight,” Sora told Riku. “I gotta do something. I’ll be right back.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku looked confused. “What? What’s more important?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Bathroom,” Sora lied, though he wasn’t sure why.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku looked at Sora with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously?” he asked flatly and rolled his eyes. “Fine. Just hurry up, will you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yup! Be right back!” Sora said, turning and heading into the main chamber with the Princesses as Riku went into the side chamber where a battle had begun, although he wasn’t sure how he knew this was where to go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem instructed Sora on how to use the machinery to extract the Princesses’ power to create the special keyblade. It formed in Sora’s hands, and he stared at the solid black key-shaped blade in wonder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It is incomplete without the seventh Princess, but it’ll have to do.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And this will help defeat Maleficent?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That is what I said.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora felt uneasy at the way Ansem said that; it almost seemed like he was amused. Sora didn’t think too much about it though, as he had to get back to Riku anyway to help him fight.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or not; it seemed the battle was over. Maleficent fled into the room Sora was in, weak.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The witch stood up tall, trying to look like her usual poised self. “Oh? And what is this?” Maleficent wondered. “A keyblade?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“A special one that can unlock hearts,” Sora said, though he wasn’t sure why; he hadn’t thought about saying that… wait.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maleficent clutched her stomach and winced in pain, apparently unable to hold her formal stature anymore.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you need help?” Sora—no, Ansem, using Sora’s voice—asked. “Do you want to be stronger?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maleficent narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That is irrelevant.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy came rushing in. “Is that a keyblade?!” Kairi said with a gasp; the other three looked just as surprised.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes… a special one that can unlock the Darkness in people’s hearts,” Ansem said again. “Allow me to demonstrate… Behold!” Ansem lifted the keyblade up and thrust it straight through Maleficent’s chest, upon which Darkness immediately began flowing from it. “Open yourself to the Darkness!” Ansem shouted. “Surrender yourself to it; become Darkness itself!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As Darkness flowed around Maleficent, she began joyously ranting about power and Darkness as she cackled maniacally while transforming into a large purple dragon. Sora blinked. Yeah, okay, she was definitely evil. Sora felt like an idiot for following her… wait, he was back in control? Also… that was definitely not ‘defeated’ by any definition.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Riku, let’s go,” Sora said, turning; he just wanted to get out of here. Especially because it seemed Ansem had lied; he hadn’t killed the witch, he’d powered her up! Sora had made a big mistake… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, you always were the more naïve one.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No; I’m staying to fight,” Riku insisted. “Then, I’m going to help Kairi however I can. You should, too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No,” Sora said. Or maybe Ansem did; Sora wasn’t sure.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku blinked, then shook his head incredulously before he rushed towards Kairi to join her in fighting Maleficent, who had flown to the other side of the room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora took off at a run, away from all the chaos, not wanting to face everything that had happened—and hoping to get far enough away that Ansem couldn’t do anything to his friends like he’d done to Maleficent.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora and Ansem—who had told Sora that he hadn’t realized stabbing Maleficent would turn her into a dragon rather than killing her, although Sora was skeptical of that—watched from a high balcony as Riku, Kairi, and her friends finished Maleficent off. The group then discussed something, and Riku left the chamber with them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You see? Riku has abandoned you. He has chosen the girl over you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s not true!” Sora argued. “He’s probably just seeing them off… he’ll come find me; I know he will! He’s just… confused,” Sora determined. “And, why’d you need to take control like that, anyway? I’d have been happy to stab her myself!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Even knowing she’d be a dragon?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...Well, no, I guess not. Wait, stop trying to change topics. Why did you take control? And, wait a second, I thought you said you didn’t know she’d be a dragon, either?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I did say that. Just because people say things doesn’t make them true.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I see,” Sora said; he’d suspected that. “Fine, whatever. What was with taking control? You won’t do that again, will you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem chuckled ominously. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Of course I will. You are weak. I can take control whenever I want.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No! I won’t let you,” Sora protested. “That’s not what I wanted. Get out!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You have no choice in the matter. Besides, Riku has abandoned you. You are alone. Why would you want to be in control anyway? It’ll only bring sadness as you wallow in the pain of loneliness.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora took pause at that. It was true; he’d already lost Kairi’s friendship, and if Riku actually had abandoned him too, he’d be stuck in this castle for eternity, wallowing in sadness… Then he’d stew in loneliness until he became something evil, like Maleficent had been; that’s how evil villains often started out, right? Sora didn’t want to be like that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You are too steeped in Darkness to follow any other fate.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was that true? Was Sora doomed to be a villain now? Sora didn’t want that… He’d rather be dead than evil and alone. Maybe he should just give up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Perfect… Fall into the Darkness, Sora. It is all you have left… now, I will be taking my body…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora barely processed Ansem’s words before everything went dark.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by Darkness, save for a window in front of him. With a start Sora realized the window was showing what his own eyes were seeing. How much time had passed between Ansem taking control and Sora waking? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were in a hallway instead of the balcony, but it must not have been much time, because Riku was standing in front of him, fists on his hips. It seemed he hadn’t left with the others after all. “What the hell was that?” Riku demanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She was weak. I made her stronger,” Ansem said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What? Why would—” Riku cut himself off and his eyes widened. “You’re not Sora. Who are you? Where’s Sora?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem scoffed. “Figures you’d think that. Just because I’ve embraced the Darkness doesn’t mean I’m a different person, Riku.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “You can’t fool me. Where. Is. Sora? What have you done with him?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem ignored that. “I see you have begun to verge towards the Light again; that is problematic…” he sighed. “A waste, but I suppose I’ll just have to eliminate you.” Ansem summoned Sora’s Dark blade.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku summoned his own sword… wait. Was that a keyblade?! “No,” Riku said adamantly. “I WILL save Sora!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem grinned. “You can try.” He raised the blade, preparing an attack…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No!” Sora declared, briefly wrenching control, though barely; although he could see from his eyes again, he couldn’t move his limbs—but neither could Ansem. “Urgh… Riku, you need to… run…” Sora told him, feeling like he was trying to talk through water. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No! I’m not leaving you, Sora!” Riku insisted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t… hold him back…” Sora explained, straining to keep control. “Find… Kairi…” Hopefully Riku would catch on; a Princess of Light might be able to help.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sora!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“GO!” Sora declared.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku looked conflicted, but turned anyway. “I love you, Sora,” he whispered, then dashed off down the corridor towards the castle's exit.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora’s hold on Ansem weakened, and he blacked out again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora slipped in and out of awareness; the beast tried saving the Princesses after the others left, but Ansem interrupted, capturing him instead; Ansem was working on the portal, doing things with the Princesses’ hearts to try to open it without needing Kairi, to little avail; Ansem was talking to some heartless, instructing them to take out some intruders… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Sora next opened his eyes, a group of people were visible through the window: Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy. The latter two seemed to be watching the former two confront Ansem. All had their weapons out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sora, what are you doing?!” Kairi yelled.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kairi! Remember, that isn’t Sora!” Riku called to her. “He’s possessed by something!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kairi’s eyes widened and she turned to Sora. “Who are you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem grinned. “I am Ansem, Seeker of Darkness!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What did you do to Sora?!” Riku demanded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem grinned maliciously. “He has been cast into the Darkness. This body is MINE now.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No!” That isn’t true!” Riku declared. “It can’t be true…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Riku! Don’t listen to his lies; Sora’s still in there, I can feel it!” Kairi yelled. “Sora, you have to fight it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem laughed. “Fool! Sora has succumbed to the Darkness. You cannot save him. There is no escape.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No! Sora, you CAN fight it! I know you can!”</span>
  <span></span><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>...Fight… Sora had to fight… but… Sora’s consciousness began to fade again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, Kairi was directly in front of the window, on the ground, struggling to get up. Sora banged on the window, trying to break through again, but it seemed more solid than before… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sora, please!” Kairi begged. “I know you’re in there!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem raised Sora’s arm, preparing to strike… he swung…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“NO!” Sora yelled, breaking through and regaining control enough to freeze mid-swing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fool! You dare attempt to fight?!” Ansem called, attempting to regain full control.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kairi stood shakily, keyblade pointed at Ansem.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Kairi… you have to… strike me down…” Sora choked out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No! I can’t do that, Sora!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sora,” came Riku’s voice through labored breathing, and from the corner of his eyes he saw the silverette shakily climbing to his feet, assisted by his… keyblade? That’s right, he’d had one before... It resembled his Dark sword, but was definitely now a keyblade. “Sora, I know you can fight him,” Riku said with confidence. “You can overcome the Darkness. I know you can.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora fought the best he could, but couldn’t move the body, at a total standstill.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Riku, do what I told you!” Kairi called.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What? Now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yes!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But—”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’ll work! I promise you, it will!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku hobbled over to the frozen Sora and… dismissed his keyblade? What was Riku doing? Sora still had his sword out! If Sora couldn’t hold back Ansem…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku put his hands on Sora’s shoulders and looked into his eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sora stared back. “Ri… ku…” he croaked out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Riku took a deep breath. “Well, here goes nothing,” he said quietly. Riku leaned forwards until he was pressing his lips to Sora’s.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was a bright light, and Sora closed his eyes as he leaned into the kiss. He wrapped his arms around Riku, stepping into his embrace… Sora then gasped and opened his eyes. He was fully in control again!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Above the two, a cloud of Darkness swirled. Sora and Riku looked up, then watched it fly around the room until it hovered in front of the unfinished keyhole. It slowly gained form into a tall man with slicked-back long white hair, tanned skin, and a half-open tacky coat that revealed a heartless symbol on his chest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“True Love’s Kiss… as meddlesome as ever,” Ansem said bitterly. “No matter. I may not be as strong as I would be with a true body, but I have absorbed enough Darkness between both of you to maintain a form…. Now, be banished to the very Darkness you tried to control!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ansem held out his hand and Darkness began swirling around Sora and Riku. The two tried to fight, but couldn’t escape as they were dragged down into it. Kairi reached for the boys, and they tried stretching towards her, but the Darkness was doing its best to push her away while it pulled them into it. As Sora’s consciousness began to fade, he tightly grabbed onto Riku, so wherever they ended up at least they would be together… </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Realm of Darkness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora and Riku wake up in a strange place.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sora opened his eyes to find himself and Riku lying on a beach of deep bluish-grey sand lining jet black water. It appeared to be night time, and a large ominous moon hung high in the sky.</p><p>Riku appeared to be waking up as well. “Where are we?” the silverette muttered as he began to sit up.</p><p>“Dunno,” Sora said, sitting up too. He put his hand on his head. “Ngh… I’ve got a killer headache…”</p><p>“Well, you were just possessed by a madman,” Riku pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah…” Sora sighed. “I really fucked up, didn’t I.”</p><p>“Yeah you did,” Riku agreed. “But, hey, you were able to overcome him in the end!”</p><p>“But I shouldn’t have let him take control in the first place,” Sora argued.</p><p>Riku shrugged. “Hey, if it weren’t you, it’d have been someone else. Someone who might not have been able to overcome him… he spoke to me, too, you know. It could have been either of us.”</p><p>Sora looked at Riku in surprise. “He talked to you, too?”</p><p>Riku nodded. “You heard what Ansem said: he absorbed our Darkness, plural, to gain form. I was close to accepting him, too… you just beat me to it.”</p><p>Sora laughed a little. “Yeah, leave it to me to finally beat you at something, just to have it be ‘possession by a madman’.”</p><p>“Is that what he tempted you with? Beating me?”</p><p>Sora shook his head. “No! Well, maybe a little? I just wanted to be stronger. I was sick of lagging behind everyone, sick of feeling useless. I wanted to prove that I could be strong, too…”</p><p>“But you are strong, Sora. Not everyone can overcome darkness like that.”</p><p>Sora shrugged. “I guess,” he said, still not believing it but not wanting to argue it anymore. “Hey, what did he tempt you with? Was it also power?”</p><p>Riku blushed. “Yeah. I wanted to protect you… he said if I could control the Darkness, I could prevent it from overcoming you.”</p><p>Sora blinked. “That’s… a really dirty move.”</p><p>“Well, he is kinda a madman,” Riku pointed out.</p><p>“Who we left with Kairi!” Sora realized, eyes widening.</p><p>“We didn’t leave her, we got thrown here… which doesn’t really seem like ‘Darkness’. When he said that I expected no light at all.”</p><p>Sora looked around. “I mean, it’s a Dark world… but yeah, when he said throwing us to Darkness, I kinda expected it to be actual Darkness too. Anyway, how do we get back? We need to help Kairi!”</p><p>“Sora, we’re not going to make it back in time to help her,” Riku pointed out.</p><p>“But—”</p><p>“She can handle herself,” Riku said firmly. “You saw first-hand how well she could fight, and she also has the duck and dog to help her. All we can do is trust them now. Trust they can stop him.”</p><p>Sora sighed. “Yeah…” he said, then perked up as he recalled something else. “Oh!” He grinned playfully. “So, True Love’s Kiss, huh? Thought that was a fairy tale.”</p><p>Riku blushed. “It was Kairi’s idea. Apparently it’s a powerful type of Light magic that actually did wake two of the Princesses up from cursed sleep, so she thought maybe it would work for possession too. I was skeptical, but, well… the results speak for themself.”</p><p>“Huh.” Sora pondered that, then blurted out without thinking, “Don’t they usually get married after? In the fairy tales.”</p><p>Riku’s face reddened further. “Sora! I don’t think… erm, not that I don’t… I mean, someday… We’re a little young for that right now, don’t you think?”</p><p>Sora laughed. “I was just joking!” he claimed. He should really think more before opening his mouth. “Anyway, we should probably try to find a way out of here.”</p><p>“Agreed.”</p><p>The two boys began wandering in the opposite direction as the water, unsure what else to do. The landscape of this place was strange, to say the least: large pillars of eerily glowing blue stone seemed to be the defining feature.</p><p>“Sora! Heartless!” Riku suddenly called, jumping in front of Sora to block an attack from a shadow before attacking. It took four strikes instead of the usual one or two.</p><p>“Are they stronger here?” Sora wondered, drawing his own blade. “Or is the keyblade weaker than the sword?” Sora hadn’t imagined it before; Riku truly had a keyblade. It was similar to his Dark blade, with the shaft in the form of an elongated demon wing, but had a small angel wing flaring out perpendicular to it at the tip. The hilt guard was also constructed of wings—one angel, one demon—flaring out around the handle. All these features combined formed an abstract key shape, as the name implied.</p><p>Riku shook his head. “No, the keyblade is stronger; looks like the heartless get powered-up here… hey, yours is a keyblade, too!”</p><p>“Huh?” Sora looked at his own blade, which indeed had changed to look more like a key. It was still largely black, but had hilt guards shaped like thin bat wings and the silver teeth and keychain were shaped like the silver crown pendant he always wore around his neck, which Riku had given him during a meteor shower when they were little—a representation of Riku’s promise to always protect Sora. A silver chain ran through a hollow in the middle.</p><p>“You must really like that necklace,” Riku joked, noting the similarities.</p><p>“What do you mean?” Sora asked, unsure what liking the necklace had to do with what his keyblade looked like.</p><p>“Well, Merlin explained to me that the design of a keyblade is based on what’s in your heart,” Riku recounted. “Meaning the necklace is very important to you.”</p><p>Sora blushed as he moved a hand to the pendant. “You gave this to me. Of course it’s important.”</p><p>Now it was Riku’s turn to blush. “I guess that explains the keychain on Way to Dawn, too,” he said, holding up his blade to show that his keyblade also had a crown keychain, this one in red—Sora’s favorite color.</p><p>“Way to Dawn?” Sora asked.</p><p>“The name of it,” Riku explained. “It came with it—I don’t know what it means yet. Maybe it means I’ll balance the Light and Dark.”</p><p>“Well, if you do, I’ll try to too!” Sora declared.</p><p>Riku smiled. “Deal. Hey, what’s the name of yours?”</p><p>“Ummm. I dunno.”</p><p>“Concentrate on it; it’ll tell you,” Riku explained.</p><p>Sora closed his eyes and focused on learning the name. It popped into his head easily. “True Love’s Promise,” he concluded, then blushed deeply. “Okay, that’s a bit embarrassing…”</p><p>“Man, you’re really gone for me, aren’t you,” Riku teased.</p><p>“Hey, so are you! True Love’s Kiss doesn’t work if it’s one-sided,” Sora pointed out.</p><p>“Point,” Riku conceded with a small blush. He looked at his blade. “Maybe the angel wings represent you…”</p><p>Sora laughed a bit at that. “No way. I fell to Darkness; if anything, the demon wings represent me. You pulled me back from that, so you’re the angel!”</p><p>“You know, Kairi’s has the crown too,” Riku suddenly said in realization. “Maybe it’s more than just us that the crown applies to? Or, her determination to find us may have given it that form...”</p><p>“Or it’s because that keyblade was originally one of ours,” Sora pointed out.</p><p>“What?” Riku asked, blinking in confusion, and Sora realized he’d never told anyone that.</p><p>“Oh, I guess I forgot to mention; it appeared when the Islands fell,” Sora explained sheepishly. “I didn’t remember right away, but it appeared between us when you were being absorbed by the Darkness. It was making the Darkness go away, taking you with it, so I tossed it aside in order to grab your hand.”</p><p>Riku’s mouth fell open. “You tossed away a legendary weapon to grab my hand?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah! I didn’t know it was legendary, and even if I did I would still have tossed it to be with you. I wasn’t going to let the Darkness take you alone! Besides, it’s not the only one anyway. That was a lie.”</p><p>“I don’t think it was a lie per se,” Riku mused. “Rather, it faded into legend and people forgot that there could be more than one at once. Kairi and I stopped back at Traverse Town to reconvene after… well, you know. Anyway, this old wizard named Merlin that Kairi apparently knows saw I had one too and told us a bunch of stuff about them. He said that a thousand years ago keyblades were commonplace. People would actually train to learn how to summon and wield one. But then there was some sort of war that involved hundreds of wielders, and they all wiped themselves out and nearly destroyed the entire universe. After that, how to summon one was kept a guarded secret, and in time they faded into legend, with only a handful of welders around at a time—those wielders being ones who summoned it in times of need, like us.”</p><p>“Wow, that’s amazing,” Sora said in wonder. “But… I bet Maleficent knew that, too,” he said, somewhat disgruntled.</p><p>“Probably,” Riku conceded. “She wanted to encourage our jealousy towards Kairi, keeping us in Darkness and away from her, and that was one way to do it. We’d never have been able to summon the keyblades while steeped in so much Darkness, and she knew if we rejoined Kairi on the side of Light that would be three keyblade wielders working against her.”</p><p>“But we were summoning keyblades,” Sora pointed out, holding his up. “Look; they’re similar to our Dark blades. They were just partial ones, because we were only using the Darkness to form them.”</p><p>Riku held his up too, eyes wide. “You think?”</p><p>“Yeah! You said they’re formed from the heart. Well, hearts are usually both light and dark, right? So if you’re using just the Dark part, you’re not using your whole heart, so you won’t make a whole keyblade.”</p><p>Riku nodded. “That does make sense.”</p><p>“Oh! Are those keyblades?” came a high squeak from the distance.</p><p>The two boys turned to see a large anthropomorphic mouse rushing towards them, also brandishing a keyblade. They took defensive stances, unsure if this was an enemy or not.</p><p>The mouse stopped near them, just out of reach of the blades. “Oh! Gosh, I didn’t mean ta scare ya!” the mouse said. “My name is Mickey. I don’t want to fight. In fact, I could use your help!”</p><p>“What do you—whoa, incoming!” Riku yelled, leaping away from a large heartless. Mickey and Sora likewise dodged.</p><p>“What is that thing?” Sora wondered. It was huge shadow, ten times Sora’s height, with tentacle-like appendages on its head that somewhat resembled hair and a large heart-shaped cutout in its chest.</p><p>The thing punched the ground, and heartless poured out from it.</p><p>It took a while, but between the three of them—well, mostly Mickey, who was much more skilled than the two boys—the giant heartless and the myriad of smaller shadows it had summoned were felled. Sora didn’t even want to imagine having to fight one alone. Hopefully there wouldn’t be more around.</p><p>Just as the three were celebrating the victory, a large tornado of heatless flew out of practically nowhere, sweeping up all three of them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Aqua</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sora awakens to a woman clad in blue.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We have now left the KH1 territory and are into that of 0.2 (the ending part related to what happened with Mickey and Riku during the end of KH1).</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Sora. Hey, Sora, wake up,” someone said, jostling Sora’s shoulder.</p><p>“Ngh… five more minutes…” Sora muttered.</p><p>“Sora, this isn’t the place for sleeping.”</p><p>Sora then realized that the voice was not one he recognized. He blinked open his eyes to find a woman clad in blue, with short blue hair and wearing a cat-eared headband, kneeling next to him. Sora scrambled up to his feet so fast his head spun and he nearly stumbled back down.</p><p>“Careful,” the woman said, standing too and putting a hand on Sora’s shoulder to stabilize him.</p><p>Sora pushed her hand away and leapt back, summoning his keyblade as he did. “Where’s Riku? Who are you? How do you know my name?” he demanded. After Ansem, Sora didn’t want to trust people so easily.</p><p>The woman put her hands out, palms facing Sora to show she meant no harm. “I’m sorry if I startled you,” she said calmly. “My name is Aqua. We met once, when you were very young. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d remember.”</p><p>Sora narrowing his eyes, trying to think back… an image popped into his mind from when he was a young child, one of the woman talking with him and Riku on the Play Island. Sora relaxed a little bit and dismissed his keyblade; he wasn’t certain he could trust her, but she seemed to mean no harm. Plus, for some reason Sora felt a sense of comfort coming from Aqua, as though she were a familiar presence he’d been missing. “I do remember you,” he told Aqua. “But, I’m not going to trust you right away. Trusting someone I barely knew is what got me and Riku sent here.”</p><p>“That’s perfectly understandable,” Aqua said. “So, Riku’s here too?”</p><p>Sora nodded. “Yeah… We got separated after a tornado of heartless attacked us… I guess it knocked me here, wherever here is.” He looked around; they were in the middle of a forest of large thorny vines in varying shades of dark red and greens. “I need to find Riku and the mouse we met like a minute before the attack.”</p><p>“A mouse?” Aqua sounded curious. “Was his name Mickey, by any chance?”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s him!” Sora declared. “You know him?”</p><p>Aqua nodded. “Yeah. He’s the King of a world called Disney Town, and a keyblade wielder too. You can trust him. Although, my word for it probably isn’t much, as you don’t know me well.”</p><p> </p><p>Sora thought for a moment. “Okay, I believe you,” he decided, though he wasn't sure why. His brain was telling him to not trust anyone so easily, but his heart was telling him the opposite about the bluenette; in fact, for some reason Sora felt he had been friends with her for a long time. “So, do you know where we are?” Sora asked.</p><p>Aqua shook her head. “Not really. I’ve been wandering the Realm of Darkness for a long time… much longer than I’d thought, considering your age. Time works strangely here. I was thrown in here shortly after meeting you.”</p><p>“What?” Sora declared. “But you look the same!”</p><p>“Yes. It seems being here freezes one’s time,” Aqua explained. “I haven’t needed to eat or sleep since coming here, either.”</p><p>“Whoa. Really? That’s crazy! So you’ve just been wandering around here for what, ten years?”</p><p>“It appears to,” Aqua confirmed. “But again, time moves strangely here; it didn’t feel that long.”</p><p>“So… does that mean by the time we get out of here, another ten years could have passed?” Sora said worriedly. “I really gotta find Riku, then! Especially since Kairi may be in trouble.” She could handle herself, Sora knew, but still. He worried.</p><p>“Kairi’s here?” Aqua gasped.</p><p>Sora was even more surprised than when she knew his name. “How do you know Kairi? She wasn’t there yet when you—oh! Did you know her before she came to the Islands? She has no memory of that; do you know where she’s from?”</p><p>“Oh! Yes, I met her in Radiant Garden,” Aqua explained.</p><p>“Radiant Garden? I don’t know that place,” Sora said, disappointed. Maybe Kairi had visited it on her journey.</p><p> </p><p>“Right, anyway, you said she’s in trouble? Is she here?” Aqua repeated.</p><p>“Huh? No, she’s not here. She was fighting this super Dark guy who controls the heartless and sent me and Riku here,” Sora explained.</p><p>“Heartless? Is that what the shadow things around here are?”</p><p>“Yeah… man, you have a lot to catch up on.”</p><p>“Then, if you don’t mind, you can catch me up on it while we walk,” Aqua suggested.</p><p>Sora thought about that. Should he go with her? How much should he tell her? But… for some reason, Sora felt a warm feeling in his heart when he thought of her. Telling him he could trust her with everything… “Okay,” Sora told Aqua. As he followed her down the path through the vines, Aqua summoned her own keyblade. Sora and Riku seriously had been lied to when they’d been told there was only one; it seemed every other person they met lately had one! </p><p>In-between hacking through the vines and fighting off heartless Sora explained to Aqua what had been going on. Aqua also explained to him her own adventure and how she ended up in the Realm of Darkness. Sora could definitely emphasize with the bluenette’s plight; she, Terra, and Ventus had been through quite a lot thanks to the divisions between Light and Dark, just as Sora, Riku, and Kairi had… Sora wondered how often such a cycle repeated itself. Maybe the solution was what Riku’s keyblade had been saying with its aesthetic and name: the way to end this cycle was to head towards the Dawn, balance out Light and Dark rather than pitting them against each other. It was worth a try, right? Sora expressed this thought to Aqua.</p><p>Aqua stopped walking and stood quietly for a few moments. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “I’ve spent so long thinking that the Darkness was a horrible thing. Plus, Terra tried to control it, but it overtook him—just like it did with you,” she pointed out.</p><p>Sora shook his head. “Terra and I were both manipulated by other people, causing us to fall too deep into the Darkness. I don’t know about him, but I didn’t even try to use the Light, only the Dark. But if they’re in balance… well, who knows?”</p><p>“I suppose that’s true,” Aqua mused. “Well, if you want to try, I won’t stop you. But know that if you fall too far and become something like Ansem or Xehanort, I will not hesitate to destroy you,” she said confidently, and Sora was certain Aqua was serious about that.</p><p>“That’s fair,” Sora acknowledged.</p><p>As the two began walking again, Aqua let out a sudden gasp. “Terra! Ven!” she called, running ahead. She hacked through the thorns and heartless in her way with new vigor, Sora following.</p><p>“Aqua, no one is there!” Sora called, looking at where Aqua’s focus was.</p><p>“I don’t care,” Aqua asserted. “Illusion or not, I want to see them.”</p><p>The two emerged into a clearing… filled with no less than a dozen of the gigantic heartless Sora, Riku, and Mickey had fought earlier.</p><p>“Oh, shit,” Sora said as the two stopped.</p><p>“Language!” Aqua chided, to Sora’s surprise. Well, she was technically nearly twice Sora’s age even if she only looked a few years older than him. Sora had a petty urge to say it again out of spite.</p><p>“No time for that!” Sora said instead. “They’ve spotted us!”</p><p>Sora and Aqua dodged in opposite directions as the nearest heartless punched the ground where the two had been standing. It took a while, but eventually all the creatures were defeated; Aqua did most the work, as she was much more experienced with fighting with a keyblade, and in general, but Sora defeated a couple too; once you got over their size and figured out their attack patterns it was actually fairly easy as they were very slow.</p><p>Aqua stepped over to what appeared to be empty air, eyes brimming with near-tears. “Terra. Ven,” she said quietly.</p><p>Sora stepped back and let Aqua have her conversation with the hallucinations in private. He couldn’t blame her for seeing things; she’d been here alone for over a decade, after all.</p><p>Suddenly, Aqua was yelling, sounding frantic about something. Sora turned to look at her… only to find tendrils of Darkness trying to take her! </p><p>“Aqua!” Sora yelled, rushing over to her. He caught a star-shaped charm similar to the one Kairi had given him as she dropped it; the charm shone brightly, reducing some of the Darkness. Sora then grabbed her hand and pulled her out. The Darkness dissipated fully.</p><p>“You saved me,” Aqua whispered. “Thank you. I—”</p><p>“No time to talk!” Sora declared as more heartless congregated around them, thankfully only small shadows this time.</p><p>“Sora!” someone called from the distance, and Sora turned to see Riku rushing towards him, hacking away at the heartless as he tried to reach Sora, Mickey following.</p><p>“Aqua!” the mouse gasped as they reached the group.</p><p>“Riku!” Sora shouted happily, rushing to hug his boyfriend.</p><p>“Mickey! It’s really you!” Aqua proclaimed.</p><p>Riku gently pushed Sora away, to Sora’s disappointment. “Okay, great, everyone knows each other,” he said hurriedly, “Now we might want to fight the hoard of heartless that’s conveniently not attacking us during this reunion.”</p><p>As if on cue, the heartless swarmed the group, who made quick work of it now that there were four of them, all keyblade wielders. Which Sora was still finding difficult to believe; this was real, right, and not some dream? He really did have his own keyblade?</p><p>“Okay, now we can hug,” Riku told Sora, sounding amused. Sora leapt into Riku’s arms, nearly barreling him over.</p><p>Aqua chuckled lightly. “It’s good to see that you two are still so close.” Then, she looked a little confused. “But, how do you both have keyblades? I know Terra passed the ability down to you, Riku, but I wasn’t aware there were any other wielders who visited the Islands since I was there.”</p><p>“Wait, Terra passed a keyblade to you?” Sora asked Riku. “When? How?”</p><p>Riku shrugged. “No idea… wait. He was that big guy who visited the Islands before you? I think he did show me a keyblade…”</p><p>Aqua nodded. “Yes. You were both very young, so it’s no wonder you forgot… when I visited, I considered passing mine to Sora, but since you already had it… well, I didn’t want it to divide you like it did with Terra and I. Perhaps I was wrong about that.”</p><p>“Maybe we should talk about this later,” Mickey suggested. “Right now, we need to find that door.”</p><p>“Door?” Sora asked.</p><p>“The door between the realms of Light and Dark,” Riku told Sora. “Mickey’s been looking for it. It’s open slightly, which is what’s causing so many Heartless to be in the worlds.”</p><p>“It needs to be closed on both sides,” Mickey further explained. “Ansem wants to open it further, so Kairi’s probably there now trying to stop him. Once she does, we’ll need to be there to help her close it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Door to Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Door is reached.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, we're at the end now! I made a few tiny adjustments to how things work for the sake of this story, so if Mickey's explanations don't quite match canon that's why (and totally not because I don't fully understand how the hell that worked in canon anyway...).</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As the four keyblade wielders walked around looking for the Door, Mickey discussed with Aqua her missing friends and various things that had happened during Aqua’s ten-year absence—Sora had only been able to tell her in detail about the past year, after all. Bored with listening to things he didn’t understand or care much about, Sora gently tugged Riku’s hand so they were walking slightly behind the two—close enough to stay with them while far enough to not easily be overheard.</p><p>“What’s up?” Riku asked.</p><p>Sora leaned heavily into Riku’s side as they walked. “Nothing. Just want to be with you,” Sora said coquettishly, enjoying the slight blush the words caused to spread over Riku’s face. Then Sora had an idea. “I’m tired. Carry me,” he ordered with a playful whine.</p><p>Riku stopped walking, causing Sora to stumble a little as he had still been leaning on the silverette. Riku turned to Sora, eyebrow raised. “You want me to… carry you?”</p><p>“Yeah! You did it all the time when we were kids!”</p><p>“You mean, like a piggyback ride? Sora, we’re too old for that.”</p><p>“Nu-uh! You’re never too old for that!” Sora declared.</p><p>Riku sighed, though looked more amused than annoyed. “Okay, fine, hop on.”</p><p>Before Riku could bend down Sora sprang up into a high jump, expertly landing in a sitting position on Riku’s shoulders. Riku made a grunting noise and wobbled slightly at the sudden unexpected weight, but easily stabilized himself and grabbed Sora’s calves. He began walking, slightly faster than before to get a bit closer to Aqua and Mickey, who hadn’t noticed Sora and Riku’s pause.</p><p>“Hey, think maybe you could get down soon?” Riku asked once they’ve been walking for a while.</p><p>“Why? It’s comfortable up here,” Sora said, resting his arms on Riku’s head.</p><p>“You’re heavier than you used to be,” Riku commented, </p><p>“Well, I better be, ‘cause I’m like twice as old now!” Sora exclaimed, then sighed dramatically. “But unfortunately I’m still nowhere near as buff as you.”</p><p>Anthough Sora couldn’t see his face, he knew Riku was blushing. “I’m not—”</p><p>“Yeah you are,” Sora said, reaching down to put his hands on Riku’s biceps and giving them a squeeze.</p><p>“Sora!” Riku complained.</p><p>“What, I can’t feel up my boyfriend?” Sora joked. “I mean, can’t really blame me, can you? Seriously, it’s not fair for someone to be that hot, Riku.” He could practically feel Riku’s face radiating heat.</p><p>“Y-you can’t just say stuff like that,” Riku told Sora. </p><p>“Why not? It’s true.”</p><p>“Well, in that case, you’re hot too,” Riku told Sora.</p><p>Now it was Sora’s turn to blush. </p><p>“Enough flirting, you two,” Aqua said with amusement. “We’ve reached the Door.”</p><p>Sora hadn’t been paying attention to where they were walking, finding himself suddenly shocked at the location. Riku, too, looked shocked, meaning he hadn’t noticed either, so it’d probably only appeared a minute or less prior; places tended to appear suddenly out of the darkness, so there was no way to know they’d end up somewhere until they were standing on it.</p><p>Sora scrambled down, then looked around in disbelief. “The Destiny Islands,” he whispered in awe. Thanks to Aqua, Sora knew that the worlds that fell to Darkness ended up in this Realm, but for some reason he hadn’t expected to find the Islands here, too. They were on the Play Island, which definitely looked like a hurricane had passed through, and as with other worlds here Darkness swirled around it in clouds and fog. It was familiar yet unfamiliar all at once. </p><p>Sora shivered slightly, unsettled at the sight, and Riku put an arm around his shoulder in comfort. “So, the door was here all along?” Riku asked Mickey.</p><p>“Well, yes and no,” Mickey explained. “See, lots of worlds have Doors like the one here, but they all lead to the same place: the Darkest point in this Realm. That’s where the primary Door to Light is, which needs to be closed. We’ll need to be careful; I’m sure there are many powerful heartless in there!”</p><p>The quartet entered the Door to find themselves in a large Dark cavern. Above a small stone pedestal hovered a glowing keyblade, the color scheme opposite that of Kairi’s although it looked identical otherwise.</p><p>“Perfect! That should be the Keyblade of Darkness needed to lock the door for good!” Mickey declared, rushing over and grabbing it. “It’s the counterpart to Kairi’s, which is one of Light,” he explained. “We need them both to lock it once the Door is closed.”</p><p>“We’ll close the Door,” Sora volunteered, grabbing Riku’s hand and pulling him towards the humongous Door on the other side of the cavern. Aqua and Mickey were discussing something called Kingdom Hearts as they did so.</p><p>Suddenly, out of practically nowhere, a large swarm of heartless appeared, heading straight for them!</p><p>Aqua jumped in front of the boys and used some sort of powerful light attack that caused chains to shoot from her keyblade and surround the mass of heartless. Had she defeated them? No… the heartless swarm began spilling out, starting to overtake her.</p><p>“AQUA!” Everyone else stopped and yelled her name, starting to head over to help.</p><p>“No! Go without me!” Aqua asserted. </p><p>“No! Aqua, we—” Mickey began.</p><p>“GO!” Aqua interrupted. “I’ll be fine! Get that door closed!”</p><p>The swarm overtook the bluenette, sweeping her right out of the cavern, the Door of which slammed shut as she left, blocking off both the heartless and herself.</p><p>Sora swore, but although he had a strong urge to go after Aqua he instead let himself be led by Riku until they reached the Door between the Realms.</p><p>Three people were on the other side of the Door, trying desperately to close it: Kairi, Donald, and Goofy. They were pushing, but it was barely moving… Kairi looked like she was on the verge of giving up.</p><p>“Kairi! Don’t give up!” Sora called, grasping the Door as well. </p><p>Riku joined in, too. “Come on. Together, we can do this!” he told the redhead.</p><p>Kairi gasped. “Sora! Riku! You’re okay!”</p><p>“No time for that!” Riku said.</p><p>“It’s hopeless!” Donald then declared, as he stared behind Sora; Sora could feel a mass of Darkness swirling behind the group… at least a dozen of the giant heartless.</p><p>A bright light shone, pushing the shadows back, and Mickey’s voice rang out as the duck and dog expressed surprise at who they were seeing. “Now, Kairi! Let’s close this door for good!”</p><p>Kairi instead hesitated. “But what about all of you?” she whispered.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Mickey consoled. “There will always be a Door to Light!”</p><p>“Yeah, you can trust King Mickey,” Goofy told the girl.</p><p>Riku quickly glanced behind him. “Hurry! They’re coming!”</p><p>“Donald, Goofy… Thank you,” Mickey told his two friends.</p><p>“Wait,” Kairi suddenly yelled, reaching into her pocket. She thrust her hand through the gap in the Door. “Here! Take these!” she told the boys. “As long as you have these, we’ll always find each other!”</p><p>Sora accepted the items in Kairi’s hand: two thalassia shell wayfinder charms, the one Sora had returned to her in anger and a new one for Riku.</p><p>“Kairi…” Sora said in awe, feeling tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.</p><p>“We’ll find a way out of here,” Riku said determinedly as he began pushing on the Door again. Sora, Kairi and her companions all followed suit.</p><p>“Yeah. We’ll come back to you, Kairi!” Sora asserted. “I promise!”</p><p>“I know you will!” Kairi called as the door clicked shut.</p><p>Mickey held his keyblade out and a bright beam of Light shot from it, flying straight at the Door. The sound of a lock clicking closed could be heard, and then the Door vanished in a flash of blinding Light, eliminating all the heartless in the room as it did so.</p><p>There was a moment of silence, which Riku broke by saying “What now?”</p><p>“Now, we find Aqua, and then a way out of here,” Sora said, handing Riku one of the wayfinders Kairi had handed to him.</p><p>“But we don’t know where Aqua is, or even if she’s alive,” Mickey pointed out.</p><p>“Well, we can’t just abandon her!” Sora said forcefully.</p><p>Riku nodded. “Right. Now that we know she’s here, we have to find her.”</p><p>“Boys. I want to find her too,” Mickey said, “But if we find a Door to Light first—”</p><p>“Then we ignore it and continue looking for her,” Sora said adamantly. He wasn’t sure where the sentiment came from, but Sora felt as strongly about saving Aqua as he would if it were Kairi or Riku missing.</p><p>Riku agreed. “We can’t just abandon her. Not after she saved us.”</p><p>Mickey nodded, convinced of their resolve. “Well, if you’re so set on it, I’m in too. Let’s go find Aqua, and then all four of us together will find a way back to the Light!”</p><p>“Yeah!” Sora and Riku simultaneously agreed.</p><p>“After all, we did promise,” Riku added, gripping his wayfinder tightly.</p><p>Sora nodded sharply, similarly clutching his charm. “Right. Let’s do this.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>(Yes, Sora was channeling Ventus a little at the end there, lol).</p><p>Thanks to everyone who stuck through to the end! No, there won't be a sequel; you're stuck with the same cliffhanger KH1 gave us. I don't even know how I'd go about a sequel, considering Namine and Roxas don't exist in this AU.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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